


Spider-Man: finally home?

by Louca



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Angst and Feels, Blood and Injury, Bullying, Central Peter Parker, Emotional Hurt, Family Feels, Gen, Irondad, Kidnapping, Parent Tony Stark, Pepper Potts Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Peter Parker Calls Tony Stark "Dad", Peter Parker Feels, Peter Parker is Pepper Potts's Biological Child, Peter Parker is Tony Stark's Biological Child, Peter is a Little Shit, Post-Spider-Man: Homecoming, Precious Peter Parker, Profanity, Psychological Trauma, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Violence, alternative universe, no beta we die like men, spiderson, the author is not a native English speaker
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-08
Updated: 2021-02-04
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:28:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 6
Words: 45,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27455761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Louca/pseuds/Louca
Summary: It starts at the police station.
Relationships: Clint Barton & Peter Parker, Cooper Barton & Peter Parker, Happy Hogan & Peter Parker, Laura Barton & Peter Parker, Lila Barton & Peter Parker, May Parker (Spider-Man) & Peter Parker, Nathaniel Pietro Barton & Peter Parker, Peter Parker & Original Male Character(s), Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 27
Kudos: 121
Collections: Irondad_and_Spideyson





	1. Police Station

**Author's Note:**

> Another hackneyed trops that I want to write in my performance. My English is not good enough to write stories in, so I just translated the text in a translator. I do not cooperate with beta, there was an unpleasant experience in the past. So I'm sorry for the mistakes. Enjoy reading. Hope someone like it)

A couple of months have passed since the final fight between Spider-Man and Vulture and the moment when May Parker learned that her nephew is Spider-Man. He himself, in principle, got off easily. Having learned the motives of her nephew, she immediately softened, but when it became clear where he had a high-tech suit, the woman's anger flared up with renewed vigor. Peter tried to protect his mentor, saying that he, on the contrary, thanks to all the protective functions with which he filled the suit, tries to keep him safe during patrols, but she didn't want to listen to anything. I told him to dial it at the same moment. But Pete didn't even have a number. There was only Happy's number, and then he wouldn't pick up the phone . So he said those, but she was adamant. So the number was dialed and the phone passed to the woman.

When on the other side of the line they heard: "What have you got this time, kid?", May introduced herself and asked Tony Stark to phone. Naturally, she was refused. But Peter, before being sent to Germany, knowingly said that if she found out about his alter ego, then he would go mad. Under pressure from Mrs. Parker Happy caved in , and when another voice was heard on the other side of the line, the woman told her nephew to close his ears. By hen Spider did it, she began to screaming. Parker didn't even know his aunt knew such words! Although this whole stream of abuse was not directed at him, he wanted to cringe and climb into that hatch on the ceiling of the room where he kept his old suit.

In short, he was eventually allowed to remain Spider-Man, a curfew was imposed, and weekly meetings with Tony Stark were stipulated to teach him how to be a superhero with the least trauma to himself. The training was different: sometimes Friday modulated different situations that could happen on patrol, and Peter had to tell how he would act in these cases. Tony taught him to distinguish between situations when you yourself should not climb and you need to call him. Sometimes he trained on the Avengers simulators indoors, and tried to defeat Mr. Stark when he put on a suit on the street, sometimes they sat in the laboratory, working on their projects (suits, web shooters, repulsor, cobwebs), it happened that the two of them tested and improved SI products, and there was such a thing when both were lazy on the couch in the common room of the complex, watching films. In general, the mentor-trainee relationship developed. Parker was quite content with his life until his famous luck made itself felt. He just helped the neighbor upstairs with a faulty lock on the front door, and the next day, when the teenager decided not to patrol after school, since he had a lot of homework (one of the conditions for Aunt May to continue his activities is to keep his grades in order) and returning from school, a policeman was waiting for him at the apartment. It turned out that a neighbor was robbed while he was at school, so he was asked to go to the police station to have his fingerprinted and removed from the list of suspects.

"Of course, sir. I'm not accused of anything? I was at school all day, the administration, teachers and classmates can confirm that ! I would never rob anyone, especially Mrs. Robbins! She always lets me pet her rabbit when I help her, and also ... "Peter began to wander, his speech accelerated and accelerated - a sure sign that he was starting to get nervous. Spider thought that it's not just helping a neighbor in the house and in the theory of his prints can be found where everything in the apartment, and it is possible even in places where it was pulled out something valuable. What could an old woman have? And the police may also think that since he was fixing the lock, he knows its intricacies and he could be a gunner, and his accomplice and committed a robbery... "Wait, I need a lawyer ??" Pete asked as he sat in the front seat of the police car.

"No, Mr. Parker, it's okay. This is just a working protocol, no one suspects you. The more her Mrs. Robbins defended you fiercely , she is categorically disposed about the idea that you may be involved in this crime."  
Peter breathed a sigh of relief and stared out the window. The last time he was at the police station was when he testified about what happened when his uncle died. Bad memories. Pete hoped he wouldn't be there long this time.

After his print was taken to the base, one of the officers showed him where the toilet was so he could wash his hands. When the teenager came back hoping to be allowed to go home, many police officers fell silent and stared at him. You know, it was the most awkward moment when you walk into the room and everyone is silent - a clear sign that they were talking about you. Parker was getting nervous again. 

"Something is wrong?"

"Peter, I'm the head of this department, Owen Weberg." introduced a man who, together with several officers, when the teenager came out, were intently looking out for something on the computer screen at one of the officers' tables. "You will have to stay a little longer, let's go to the rest room. You can have a snack there and we will talk."

Parker narrowed his eyes suspiciously. Spider-instinct began to scrape in the back of his head. The first bell - they stopped keeping a respectful distance with him, they switched to a name, as if to form some kind of trusting relationship. He watched many films for a reason, thank you very much. Something was definitely wrong. The spider nervously ran a hand through his hair and in confusion scratched the tingling vertebrae on his neck, going after the head of the department. He saw him briefly on TV when a department in Queens was required to report on some serious case in their jurisdiction..

"Would you like a sandwich, Peter?" when they entered the common room, Mr. Weberg suggested, opening the refrigerator. “You sit down, sit down,” Peter swallowed, feeling his heart pounding with nerves and stomach pounding. He should have eaten for a long time, especially considering his metabolism, but now his thoughts were far beyond that. If he was brought to the break room and not to the interrogation room, then things shouldn't be that scary, right? Nervously fiddling with the strap of his backpack, he shook his head resolutely , staying on his feet.

"No thanks. Tell me what's going on. Please, sir."

The man sighed and took an open packet of crackers from the locker and handed it to the teenager.

"You still eat something. And sit down, it is not known how long you are stuck here. I can't talk to you without the presence of a social worker. He's already been summoned. And don't be scared, an FBI agent and possibly a CIA agent. will also be present during the conversation... "The spider plopped down on the sofa and stared at the policeman with wide eyes. The case was taking some crazy turns. Is it possible that at some crime scene where Spider-Man was present even before his upgrade, he left his prints and now there was a match in the database? He simply had no other options. Jesus, it looks like this situation is really worth the call to Tony Stark.

"Don't panic, boy." the man advised, when he put the kettle on to boil and turning around, saw the expression on the boy's face. "You are not in trouble, I promise everything will be all right. Nobody accuses you of anything."

"I ... I think I should call someone." Pete swallowed again, pulling back the collar of his school sweater, which was suddenly pressing into his neck.

"But I can't allow you this. Firstly, if you are going to call your aunt, they have already left for her, they will soon bring her here and we will talk to her separately. And, secondly, we are not sure of the reliability of some -What's the result, so for now everything that happens must not be disclosed. Give me your phone, please. It's just a precaution. "

Parker took out his cell phone and handed it to the chief of police, looking around the room frantically. The situation was getting worse and worse. What are the chances that he will be left alone in the room and be able to climb out the window? What are the chances that he will manage to escape from the police station at all? May I ask to go to the toilet? Try crawl through the window... But Aunt May... He can not leave her here. What could they possibly want from her ?! They don't think she was the one who made him Spider-Man! How the hell would he get in touch with Mr. Stark now?!

His thoughts were interrupted by the opening door and a middle-aged woman in a trouser suit who entered the room.

"Hello Mr. Weberg. Hello, you must be Peter, right?" she smiled amiably and sat down on the sofa next to the teenager. "My name is Amy Davis, you can just contact me Amy. I'm a social worker. I'll represent you here. We'll wait for the agents and start a conversation, okay?"

They talked to him like a small child, merrily. So the best defense is offense, right? Peter was so scared at the moment!

"I will not answer any questions without the presence of my guardian." he tried to speak as firmly as possible, but his voice trembled, yes, what can you do. Parker told myself that we must act confident, but do not let on that their rights, he only knows it , and then, from the movies.

"There are certain circumstances because of which your guardian , May Parker , can not be present during this conversation. But I am on your side, Peter, you know? You have nothing to worry about."  
Owen made tea and served the teenager.

"Come on boy, grab something while we wait."

Pete wondered what a man had to feed him? Also in this way trying to win over?

Nevertheless, Spider-Man dutifully ate a couple of crackers and took a couple of sips from a cup - all this with force, since he did not get a piece down his throat, especially when these two were staring at him strangely. This is New York. Mutants weren’t going, or what? He set his mug and packet of crackers down on the table beside the sofa and stared at Mrs. Davis suspiciously. Peter felt so get in ... and feel so helpless! The first time after all that Vulture situation, he decided to call Tony Stark, because he really had big problems, but even then, he could not do it now!

It was necessary to urgently come up with at least some more or less intelligible plan. Only it 's calving to do it, as the door opened again and two men entered the room. The atmosphere between them felt tense, like Captain America and Iron Man before the battle at Leipzig airport . Apparently, all sorts of TV shows and movies were right - there was always something between these two departments . Couldn't they have shared his business this time? He didn't do anything like that , on the contrary - he helped people! Let him go, please! He still a lot of homework to do, and now, apparently, prison shine, if not worse ...

"It seems like there is a part in my rights about the fact that I have the right to make one phone call. Sir, return my phone for this, please." So, the main thing is to look calm and try to control what he can control.

“Take it easy, Peter, you're not a suspect, so you won't need a call. I'm Agent Treston from the FBI, ” one of the men said, sitting down in a chair and nodding his head at the other man. "This is Agent Lewis from the CIA. Tell us, Peter, about your earliest childhood memory."

Peter raised his eyebrows in surprise at the question. Do they think that some experiments were carried out on him in childhood, and this has now manifested itself in the form of superpowers? He bristled and crossed his arms over his chest. That it looked like a defensive posture didn't bother him. No, well, they seriously think that he will answer their questions, not knowing exactly why he should do it?

"On what. Basis. Was I. Here. Asked. To stay?" clear to make it sound as calm as possible, Pete said, gazing at the agent asking the question. He can throw questions back and forth for a long time until he receives the explanations he needs.

The agents exchanged glances and Treston answered.

"Your prints matched those of a kidnapped child 14 years ago. We want to find out the details and do a DNA test ..."

As soon as he got the answer, Peter was instantly relieved, it really was like a mountain had been lifted from his shoulders. It wasn't about Spider-Man, it was all ho ... Wait, what ?!

"Sorry?" he choked on saliva. "It seems to me that there is some mistake, sir. Firstly, who takes fingerprints from a one-year-old child? And secondly, I think if I were adopted and did not even know about it, then I could have there may be some guesses about this. I know a little about biology and my appearance and the appearance of my parents did not raise my suspicions to think about gene transfer and start asking questions. Let's check my prints again. Maybe there is some kind of system failure in the department . Anything can happen. " Shrugging his shoulders, Spider said very politely, being sure that they would quickly sort out this misunderstanding and he would finally go home. Will have something to tell Ned.

Agent Lewis chuckled as he opened the folder he had come with and began flipping through it.

“We know you're a smart guy, Peter. You go to a prestigious school, take a few AP classes, be on the DecaTlon team, and have attended other electives before . Do you really believe that the police department, the FBI and the CIA systems failed all together at one moment? Agent Treston and I would not be here if this information was not confirmed. This family, which still tries to believe that their child is alive and well, continues to make efforts to to find him ... These are famous people. Children of famous people are often victims of crime, so security officials of such families often recommend fingerprints, DNA samples, etc., which may be needed if their child becomes a victim of a crime. that your search took so long. But as you can see, these precautions have played out now. So stop fiddling, boy, we'll just take your saliva, hair and blood so that we can More accurate evidence of your identity, we will compare with the samples that we have, and we will continue to dance from there. "

Peter frowned, disliking the attitude of the CIA agent. He addressed him as if the fact that he was some kind of kidnapped child was no longer in doubt. The guy categorically did not believe in this, although he knew perfectly well that there are no identical fingerprints, and if his prints coincided with those of that poor child, then there is a very high probability that this is actually him. The prospect made Parker feel dizzy.

"I won't let you take anything from me." Pete tried to speak firmly, but there was some faint bleating, as if he was simply denying it. Whatever it was, but his DNA after the bite of a radioactive spider was definitely changed. And no matter what got into the laboratories of the special services, if they did not know now that he was Spider-Man, then after this analysis they will definitely find out. The question now was not whether he was a kidnapped child or not, the main thing was not to allow anyone to get his DNA samples!

Agent Treston sighed.

"Until we are one hundred percent sure that you are this particular boy, Peter, we cannot devote you to all the details of this case, but I think those present will understand me if I share a small detail with you. In the end, everyone wanted to be a member of the Stark family. " With these words, the man got up from the chair and went to the sofa, handed the teenager a folder, which was opened on the page where one photo was posted: half of the picture was taken by Tony Stark's face in his teenage years, and the second was the face of Peter himself from a professional photo, who recently made MJ for his Instagram avatar , because according to her, she could not look at the squalor that was there before. And they don't argue with Michelle Jones. And even more so, she needed a project for her photography lesson.

Two parts of two different photographs put one face together. It was certainly not perfect cloning, but the great similarity between the two faces was impossible to miss.  
Wow, the FBI reacted quickly and clearly, digging up information and already having time to estimate the teenager's similarity to his alleged father.

"If you can really tell from your looks which leading genes are passed down from parent to child, then what do you say about that, Peter?" Agent Treston asked softly as Spidey stared blankly at the photograph, it seemed for the first time his fast-racing brain had stopped trying to process what he saw. "As you can imagine, the DNA test is just a formality."

Suddenly, even for himself, a laugh burst out of Pete's mouth, which quickly turned into hysterical, insane laughter. It really was some kind of madness. He did not expect his first hysterical seizure to happen at 15. He never thought that this would ever happen in his life. As well as the fact that he could be Christian Anthony Stark. The whole world really knew about him. Tony Stark met Virginia Potts at some party, no matter how the girl tried not to succumb to his charm, she failed. The result of a night together was a child. Pepper told Tony that she doesn't care what he thinks about it and she doesn't need any handouts. By that time, she was already a rather self-sufficient person, so she decided to leave the child and simply informed Anthony about it. Of course, at that time he was still not in the best place, but through many conversations with Rhodey, he promised himself that he would try to take part in the child's life in order to become a better parent than his father was. Born Christian lived with his mother, so it was safer, Tony visited them when he could. Once, when the child was out for a walk in the park with the nanny (usually he was rarely left with her, only when Pepper could not work from home and she had to leave for the office) and, as often happens, the woman lost sight of him only momentarily turned out to be a fatal event. The child disappeared, no ransom demands were received, the traces led abroad - explained the presence of a CIA agent here today. Peter learned all this information from the Internet, the whole world followed the boy who was born with him on the same day (now he doubted that this fact was such a coincidence), all subsequent interviews with Tony Stark and Virginia Potts on this matter were dry, full of words of hope that their boy is healthy and will soon return to them alive. No one knew what was behind their press face masks. Pete never discussed his missing son with Mr.Stark, he never even briefly mentioned him. So, what he thinks about all this now, after 14 years of unsuccessful searches, he did not know. The only known fact was that after a time, usually when a kidnapped person is declared dead, no one did such a thing with Christian Stark. Intelligence agencies were actively sponsored to continue the investigation. It seemed to Parker just some kind of empty debt, rather than really belief in the best and the still unquenchable zeal of unhappy parents to find their son. And what will happen now that he may have been found? What will happen now that he is possibly Peter Parker the Spider-Man?

Mr. Weberg poured water into a glass and handed it to him, the agents exchanged glances as if they were wondering if they should call a psychologist, and the social worker slowly stroked his back as he held the glass with a shaking hand and drank the water. It was supposed to be soothing, but in reality he was just disgusted. Due to a pause in the conversation, Spider-Man, with the help of his improved hearing, was able to hear Aunt May, who had apparently already been taken to the police station and was being interrogated. Quickly worked, not surprising when the disclosure of such a noisy hanging was at stake. She said something about the fact that she first learned about the existence of her nephew when he was about two years old, they were not told whether this was their child or whether they adopted him, she and Ben never asked how they immediately decided for themselves that dear. It was not surprising to them that Richard and Mary had not told them before, just that the Parker brothers did not communicate very often and closely.

May and Ben first saw Peter when he was 5 years old, when Mary and Richard had to fly on a business trip and asked to watch over their son for several days until they returned. That flight turned out to be fatal for them, and Peter remained to live with his uncle and aunt. And the fact that she is not keen on Tony Stark to follow his life and compare how he looked in his youth with how her nephew looks now . She never really had reason to believe that Peter could be anything other than Parker. The teenager did not know what the policemen were thinking, but he believed his aunt. If this was all true, then he was sure that she was not involved in anything. Well, she is not the kind of person to be involved in any crimes at all.

After emptying his glass and muttering his thanks, Spider-Man took a deep breath and looked around the room. In the reflective surface of one of the lockers, he caught his reflection: he looked pale, nervous and frightened. Does he look like a man who could bear the name Christian and even more so the surname Stark?

Peter struggled to remember something from his childhood that might not coincide with each other, but he couldn't really remember anything. He didn't have any trauma about this. He did not know who took him, what happened to him, how he got to the Parkers, whether they were involved at all in this or not ... Although this can be explained by just the same trauma, when the brain simply blocks certain memories, since it is easier for the mind to cope, remembering nothing about something that hurts. At the same time, when you stubbornly deny something, but those around you convince you that this is so, by will, not by will, but you begin to think, but what if what they say is really true? Peter was confused.

"And what about the program that generates, based on the faces of the parents, what their child looks like with age ? It seems that every year updated photos of the missing children are published in the media. I would notice that I am very similar to Christian Stark in the previous couple of years, when new photographs with his alleged appearance. " Peter really clung to the weak threads of some kind of inconsistency, as if hoping that they would not serve as a basis for the doubts of the police and FBI and CIA agents . He just wanted to be in his room now, curl up under the covers and pretend that all this is not happening to him. Maybe he had to go on patrol after school today, and do his homework after the night patrol, eh?

“We cannot provide the press with more than one photo, since the effectiveness of the kidnapped child being recognized and it will be really him, and not just a random child a little like him, is reduced. Program based on the child's appearance at the age when he was kidnapped, and the appearance of his parents generates how he would theoretically look in a year, two, etc. The leading genes of both parents are taken into account. Basically, this works correctly, but as you can see, you turned out to be more like a father, from mother got only small details. Turn previous page. "

Pete did as he was told and saw that childhood photograph of Christian Stark that he had seen millions of times before, along with photographs of his intended parents a dozen years younger. After the disappearance of their son, they remained close, supporting each other, but as often happens with parents who got into a similar situation, grief corroded them. Looking at another person with so much pain was unbearable. Life divorced them for a while in different directions, then the circumstances turned out so that Pepper began to work for Stark Industries and then everything is already known what else these people had to go through, but they managed to get out of all adversity and now they are engaged and seem to be happy. What will happen now?

Is this little boy really what he looked like as a child? Pete had no photographs when he was at that age, his apartment with May is full of only photographs since the age when he began to live with her and Uncle Ben. Are Mary and Richard really involved in the kidnapping? He practically did not remember them and was not sure that those chaotic memories that he had were really from life with them, he called them parents purely formally, so now it was quite easy to reorganize into names.

The spider shook his head, everything that happened today at the police station just seemed to him some kind of nonsense. He sighed again, gently running his finger over the faces of Tony and Pepper in the photo. If you know where and what to look for, then the conclusion that he really was too similar to them, so that it was not blood, suggested itself. The teenager simply had no idea what to do now. On the other hand, according to scientific data , there are 7-9 people in the world who are very similar to each other, not connected by blood...

"As soon as we do the DNA test, we will give instructions to the laboratory what to do this test in the first place, so you won't have to wait long, then we will have one more proof, we can already call your parents and tell them the news. very happy to know you've finally found. Don't you want to meet Iron Man himself and the CEO of Stark Industries, Peter? "

He wanted to laugh again. Apparently, it was such a manipulative technique aimed at the fact that modern adolescents are mostly fans of all superheroes, modern technologies and the like, so in theory he should have been distraught and not create any more problems for them by refusing to take the test. Agent Treston turned out to be that bitch, now Peter even sympathized with the CIA agent, who at least spoke everything directly. Only they didn't know that he actually already knew Iron Man, even fought on his team, and officially is just an intern in his company, given that Stark Industries only accepts college graduates for internships, yeah. Apparently, they dug only superficial information, they either did not have time to look for something deeper, or what they had seemed to them sufficient.

During all of his meetings with Tony in the Avengers complex, he never crossed paths with anyone from his circle. He only knew Happy and that's it. Mr. Stark really did his best to keep his identity a secret. So, what his mother (?) Was like when he met closely, he did not know. She probably won't react very well to the fact that he really inherited too many genes from his father, given his heroic tendencies.

With a slightly shaking hand, Peter reached for the pack of crackers and even somehow imposingly crossed his legs. Do they think he is Tony Stark's son? So you have to match.

"It is very naive of you, Agent Treston, to believe that they ALREADY do not know that there was a coincidence of fingerprints with those of their son in the police and intelligence systems. After all, this is Tony Stark, is it not?" the teenager grinned and tossed a handful of crackers into the mouth . It was just that with his improved hearing, he already heard the sounds of Iron Man's repulsors, which indicated that he was approaching the Queens Police Department. In a couple of minutes, ordinary people will be able to hear it. Let the show begin. As much as Parker was nervous and worried about this whole situation before, now he suddenly felt just fun. Nervous, I guess.

The agents exchanged glances, apparently trying to silently decide who and how to continue this conversation, when the Iron Man repulsor sounded such a feeling that it was right above the roof of the police station building. Peter wanted to giggle, but he held back. Seems like a madman, well. Although he has the right! Not every day he finds out that he seems to be the son of the most famous person in the world.

"Miss Davis, stay with Peter, please." asked Mr. Weberg, and together with the agents quickly left the room.

“Peter, dear, listen…” the woman started, but the teenager interrupted her.

"Sorry, I want to be alone with my thoughts." he hoped he wasn't being too rude, he just needed to listen to what was going on behind the wall, and talking to a social worker would keep him from focusing. He had already heard the suit open.

"Wow, wow, wow, the entire Queens Police Department, along with the FBI and CIA agents are here. What a wonderful meeting! It seems that the investigation of an important case has got off the ground. For some reason, I was not invited. But nothing, I'm Tony Stark, I can invite yourself, and find out what the hell is with the case of my child, who disappeared 14 years ago ! " heard Spiderman words of Mr. Stark. In addition to the tired anger and the desire to prick these people, who apparently could not do anything sensible during all these years of searching, he could not decipher other emotions that were hidden in his tone. The public mask of sarcasm and mockery was ingrained in Tony too well.

"Mr. Stark, we know that you are a busy person. We did not want to disturb you in vain. Fingerprints were passed through the database, which coincided with those of Christian, similarities were found in appearance and hmm ... perhaps in the legacy of good mental abilities, but we are still The boy refuses ... "the chief of police began to explain.

The billionaire was silent for some time, probably processing the fact that his son might be alive, and he would not see his remains, for which, after so many years since the abduction, it was necessary to mentally prepare. Apparently, as soon as Iron Man learned from Friday that there was a match in the case of his child, he immediately rushed to the specified coordinates. Peter thought that if he listened to his AI, it would probably tell him that matches were found with Peter Parker's prints. The Spider was sure that Mr. Stark had ordered Friday to closely monitor any mention of Spider-Man and Peter anywhere, not from the news, he then learned about what was happening on the ferry, right the word.

"For so many years there have been so many children pretending to be my son, someone stubbornly believed that he could be one, someone zealously avoided the test. Where is this child? I will talk to him and we will quickly end it all." apparently the man decided that since this alleged son of his also refuses to take the test, then for sure it may turn out to be one of an endless series of fakes. Ha, a surprise awaits him, at least in the personality of the "pretending".

"No, Mr. Stark, you can't ..."

"Do you think that I will intimidate this child?" snorted Tony and Peter heard him walk to the first door he came across and open it. Then he began to move along the corridor, methodically opening all the doors and ignoring everything that was said to him. Somewhere the premises turned out to be empty, somewhere there were interrogations. Apparently, other teenagers who could be mistaken for Christian Stark were nowhere to be found. Hearing footsteps very close to the room he was in, Spidey stared at the door. When it opened and the billionaire was able to look around the room, his eyes of course focused on his protégé. His expression was changing rapidly and Pete could not understand how he was feeling. And he himself did not know how he felt!

"Hello Mr. Stark." the teenager nervously waved his fingers at him and holding their photo between his index and middle fingers turned it towards him. "Nice photoshop, isn't it?"

"Mr. Stark, hello, I'm Amy Davis, a social worker ..." the woman jumped up from her seat, hoping, apparently , to make some contribution to the conversation, to show that she was not in vain, her duty to take care of children and blabla. The billionaire didn't even glance at her.

"Let's go." he said under the sprout and turned around in the doorway. That one leaped to his feet obediently, grabbing his backpack. He is used to following what Mr. Stark tells him. At least for the most part. When they went out into the corridor and headed for the exit, everyone was again alarmed.

"Where are you taking him? Mr. Stark, you can't just take the boy!"

"We're going to test at the Avengers compound. If it's negative, my security chief will take him home." in a tone that can't bear to return, Tony said, and turned to Peter. "Get in the car, Happy has already arrived."

The teenager nodded and continued on his way to the exit from the building, he clearly noted for himself that Mr. Stark avoided any names, otherwise he would have called him at least 3 times any of the nicknames he invented for the entire time they met. So it was a very serious matter. Probably from the outside it looked strange that he did not fall into fan delirium when he saw Iron Man himself, but now he didn't care who and what thought.

"Hello, Happy!" Spider shouted as he climbed into the car.

"What are you doing here, kid?" the man from the driver's seat turned to him. Of course, he assumed that if his destination was in Queens, then this may be due to Peter Parker, but the fact that such a positive boy could get to the police station raised considerable doubts in him.

"The cops think I can be Christian Stark."

"Shit!"

"Yep!" Peter chuckled and began to tell Hogan about his present day. "... Well, what kind of DNA test? You know I can't do it ... And then Agent Treston says, they say, don't you want to meet Iron Man himself and the CEO of Stark Industries? Hahaha , I almost laughed in his face!"

By the time Tony got into the car, he had finished his story for Happy and was just sitting there giggling. Tony got into the car more than one, agent Treston for some reason got into the front seat , and the billionaire told his chief of assets to go to the Base, and then closed the partition between the front and rear of the car.

"I do not like him."

"Flair?" inquired Tony, looking closely at his intern. They had not yet fully explored this part of his superpowers, but they knew that if it worked, something might be seriously wrong.

"No, just as a person I don't like him."

"Okay kid, I'll try to kick him out of Base as soon as possible." the man sighed, thinking that in the history of crimes there were many cases when someone from the authorities was involved in some crimes and either covered up the guilty or dragged out the investigation. It's a good thing that spider- sense didn't work, otherwise he would have good reason to suspect something of the agent. "Sorry, there was no other way. He will sign the NDA. They also wanted to send a social worker and a laboratory assistant with us, but I managed to bargain for one agent who would accompany us and control the situation from the special services. Agent Treston generally wanted to sit back with me. to make sure I'm not pushing you in any way, but who is he to tell me what to do? Only Pepper can do that. " he chuckled.

Pete nodded, still chuckling occasionally to himself.

"What's so funny?" asked his mentor/alleged father.

"I do not know." the teenager answered honestly, finally looking at him. "Apparently, the body's defense reaction." And then, all as unexpectedly as the first laugh in the break room at the police station, he let out a sob.

His interlocutor drew him to himself, trying to either muffle the incipient hysteria, or at least somehow console. Spider-Man buried his nose in his shoulder. Apparently they were already there at last. All he had to do was get under suspicion that he might be the kidnapped son of Mr. Stark. These thoughts involuntarily forced him to give vent to emotions even more. Parker thought that he spent so much time with Tony, did he really not notice the external similarity (although, in truth, no matter how much Pete saw his photographs in adolescence, he had no thoughts to compare their appearance), really something inside him didn't skip ...

"It's going to be okay, baby. We'll figure it out." whispered Tony into his hair, stroking his shoulders as Miss Davis recently did. Only in contrast to her, this action was not disgusting for him, it felt ... right.

The spider believed the words of Mr. Stark, be it even Christian Stark or Peter Parker, he will in any case remain in the life of his idol, since they are connected by Spider-Man.

"I'm sorry ..." the teen muttered as his emotional outburst subsided a little.

"What are you sorry about?" Iron Man asked quietly. Pete just shook his head in response. He wished the old wounds were disturbed again, this time because of him. But he didn't have the courage to say that.

“Aunt May…” he recalled, pulling back and wiping his face.

"I called her a lawyer."

"Thanks." Peter smiled slightly.

Tony nodded and looked out the window.

"Pizza?"

Thanks to the traffic in New York, they really hadn't left its borders yet, and just soon they had to pass by one of the pizzerias, in the network of which they often arrange delivery on their laboratory days.

"That would be nice! I didn't get a good snack after school ..."

The man lowered the partition and asked Happy to stop by the pizzeria, and then closed it again. Usually, when they drove together or Hogan drove Peter alone, the partition always remained open, since they completely trusted Happy, but here, apparently, Tony felt the need to isolate himself and Spider from the FBI agent sitting in front. And he did the right thing, you never know, he could well hear something that was not intended for his ears.

"A good way to win over your child is to feed him pizza." Spider heard the agent's words as they stood in line at the order window.

"I changed my mind. Agent Treston is not that I don't like it. He's an asshole!" he told Mr Stark gloomily. The man laughed.

"What did you hear, kid?" he asked a teenager with improved hearing.

"He says you decided to buy us a pizza so that I like it!"

"Well, he doesn't know that you've loved me for a long time without pizza, does he, baby?"

Pete rolled his eyes, a small smile playing on his face as he answered in the affirmative without hesitation. The tense atmosphere between them gradually subsided, they returned to their usual manner of communication. The spider began to feel much more comfortable. In the end, why should something change dramatically?

Mr.Stark ordered 6 pizzas and a few glasses of soda - much less than they usually order at the Base, since when Parker stays overnight, they take pizza with the expectation that they will have a little warm up the next day for a snack. Iron Man handed two of pizza Happy forward and Treston`s, and they left four with a child. Well-four, and currently one pers on in JCU Spider-three, given its metabolism. This should be enough for a late dinner at the Complex.

Pete decided to pass the time and took Calculus a notebook and a pencil from his backpack, began to do his homework, eating pizza along the way. Tony also ate his pizza, solving some questions on the phone and periodically slipping napkins, then a glass of soda to the teenager so that he would not choke.

By the time he arrived at the Base, Peter had done all the homework that he had with him. This whole situation, in fact, the reason for his unscheduled visit here, he and Mr. Stark never discussed. Actually, this state of affairs seems to suit both of them, for sure, each of them simply did not know how to start a conversation and what to say. The Spider was sure that Iron Man did not know anything, since these would be truly delusional assumptions that he could find out everything and decided to first take a closer look at his child, before dumbing him with the news if he planned to say anything at all.

Agent Treston was not allowed anywhere from the garage (Peter grinned viciously), and not only that, his phone, it turns out, took Happy while they were waiting for their order and turned it off. And now he left and returned with a bunch of pieces of paper, which represented a non-disclosure agreement on the level of the Avengers, that he in no way and in any form can disclose the location of the Complex, what he hears, sees, etc. Hogan was serious about his work, so he planned to stand over the agent for as long as it took until he read all the conditions and put his signature. If necessary, Happy would also provide him with a call to a lawyer for legal advice. And Pete was finally able to completely relax and hide his smile, heading with his mentor to the elevator.

The complex looked deserted only at first glance; in fact, people were working in it, maintaining its functionality. Only the circle of these people was strictly limited and they were so hung with different NDAs that Parker always felt safe here, knowing that his identity was protected as much as possible. He only occasionally caught a glimpse of someone, but they never spoke. In addition to Dr. Cho, who has already patched him several times after particularly traumatic patrols. To her, apparently, they were now heading. He trusted her completely. Helen did not live at the Base, but she showed up there when needed. Apparently, today was just such a day, or Tony had already asked her to come.

“Hi Tony, Peter, I finally see you without injury,” the woman smiled.

"Except for the moral." chuckled the teenager, but judging by the frowning face of Dr. Cho and Mr. Stark, who didn't laugh, they didn't think it was funny. Pete sighed and threw his backpack on the floor and flopped into a chair. "So what's the plan?"

"There are no samples of Christian's DNA here, the only ones that have ever existed have been handed over to the secret services, so I'll just take blood from both of you and compare the DNA." looking warily at Iron Man as she mentioned his son's name, Helen said.

Tony, if he felt anything at the mention of his child, his expression didn't show it. He began to roll up his sleeve in silence, apparently wanting to quickly end all this.

"Wait, but my spider DNA will not affect the result? In terms of my plan, I did not have the opportunity to study my changes at the genetic level, what if the test shows that I am more of a spider than a human, so there is no coincidence with any of the people?"

“I think you yourself understand that if your DNA were changed by more than 35%, then you would have 6 eyes or 6 legs. I believe that from the rest it is quite possible to learn everything we need. If not, Friday will help me replace the spider part with a human, based on the remaining human percentages, and we'll do the analysis. Anyway, for the police, the FBI and the CIA, we will need to edit, shall we say, your DNA sample, since we we cannot show it to them with spider changes. "

Pete nodded, accepting the information.

"How long will it take?" asked the man.

“It would take a little less than a day for the laboratories of the special services , with the capacities that are here, I will cope much faster. But when it is necessary to edit the DNA, I cannot say how long it will take. So for now, we are guided by plus or minus 8 hours. "

"Okay. Thank you, Helen."

The doctor took their blood and they left. Parker immediately went to his room and flopped onto the bed, staring thoughtlessly at the ceiling. After lying there for a couple of minutes, he sighed and went to wash his hands in the bathroom. In addition, the teenager also rinsed his face and stared at himself in the mirror. Christian Anthony Stark. Could he still not be? Sighing again, Peter returned to the room and changed his school uniform into more comfortable clothes. His room in the Complex was equipped with everything a teenage boy could dream of. Even the closet on the first visit was filled with clothes of a suitable size and style, although at Base he could avoid baggy layers, since there was no one to hide his muscles from. Well, at least things didn't seem insanely expensive.

The spider understood that he was unlikely to go to school tomorrow, so he scanned his homework, which he had done on the way, and sent it to the teachers by mail with an apology. Regarding the rest that he had at home, he mentally thanked Google services, since he had one account, that on the laptop that Spiderman collected himself at home, that on the new SI here (he never took it outside the Base , at first he could not even stand outside the room, although Mr. Stark insisted that he take him with him to Queens, since he was definitely better, but Spider-Man resisted. He could not accept such an expensive thing, but at the same time, when he was given it just like that, and could not not use it. So he found a compromise and enjoyed the wonders of technology within the Complex).

Having dropped a few lines to Ned that he is temporarily without a phone, for some reason he will not go to school tomorrow and this does not concern his "hobby", and that he will tell him everything later, when he can, and will definitely know, Peter sent him an e-mail , and started doing homework. He scanned the textbooks a long time ago and uploaded them to PDF on Google Disk, since it was not very convenient to constantly drag them here and there between the house and the Base.

It didn't take him much time to complete the remaining tasks, since it was much more comfortable to study at the table than on his knees in the car. The teenager sent this homework with the same apologies to the necessary teachers and turned off the laptop. Getting up from his chair, he stretched to flex his muscles a little, and went to the door. His room was soundproofed, Parker tirelessly thanked his mentor for this, since he needed blissful silence for his improved senses after the noise-filled days. He opened the door and listened. Pete had heard absolutely nothing, perhaps Mr. Stark was in his laboratory. He could have joined him, but did not feel that he was in the mood for it. So Spider-Man closed the door and looked at the time. It was the beginning of the eleventh evening - just the time when he went out on patrol or was already on patrol if he needed to go home early. But today, of course, there will be no patrol. So Spider changed into one of the T-shirts in which he slept and his favorite pajama pants with Iron Man helmets. When Spider-Man became more or less comfortable with Mr.Stark, he began to wear his stuff of fan paraphernalia. Mr. Stark seemed to like it.

The teenager asked Friday to turn off the lights and closed his eyes. He thought that he would not be able to sleep for a long time, since he had a lot to think about after today, and usually he went to bed much later. But Peter only had time to think about where he would have been placed if he had allowed his DNA samples to be taken back then at the police station. Probably somewhere in a motel under guard, how often he saw this in films. At this thought, Parker fell asleep, all the same the day was very exhausting for him. Stress and fatigue made themselves felt.


	2. Avengers Complex

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Everyone who expected a lot of dynamics of Iron-Dad and Spider-Son, everything will be 👌 but in a slightly different format than you expected, I think) I hope that after this chapter you will still read me)

Peter woke up with the feeling that someone was looking at him. Since spider sense is not gone mad, then he was safe. The teenager opened his eyes. Near his bed was burning night light, and sat in the chair next to Tony Stark and looked at him.

"Jesus Christ, Mr. Stark , this is creepy!" Pete sat up quickly. "Has something happened? Mission?"

"No, no, kid, it's okay, no mission. I didn't mean to wake you up, sorry." Tony sighed and ran his hand wearily across his face. The spider noticed that he was wearing the same clothes as yesterday. Apparently, he did not go to bed. The teenager glanced at the clock on the bedside table and saw that it was already 4 in the morning. The billionaire just sat there for a while and watched his intern sleep?

"What then ...?"

"The analysis results are ready ."

Parker looked at his mentor in silence, waiting for him to continue.

"This is a match ."

The spider blinked. Of course, at the police station he was kind of convinced that he was Christian Stark , but now after the test it was somehow more real, or something . He is officially the child of Tony Stark and Pepper Potts , kidnapped 14 years ago. He really didn't know what to say. The question was spinning in his head about what to do now, but something told him that his ... father did not yet know the answer to him.

"The FBI is going to take you somewhere, according to the official version, this is done with all children - victims of crimes, so that far from the place where they suffered, they can soberly assess the situation and decide for themselves what they want next in their life, not getting under someone else's pressure ... "

"I don't need this. Why can't I go back to my normal life?" Spider-Man quickly blurted out.

"Baby, I don't like this either, but listen to it. The unofficial version is that those who took you away from us have not yet been found, it is possible that all this time your life was being watched. Intelligence agencies need to find out in order to understand whether it is safe for you to return to normal life. "

"I can take care of myself!"

"I know, Underoos , I know, but the FBI is not ."

"I'll run away from wherever they put me ."

"Pete, how to be funny I was not watching the FBI metushit Xia , because you escaped from - under their nose, but you're all the same . Do not do this course , I and my team of lawyers will cover the silence about that you found anyone who can , but sooner or later it will pop up. I have a lot of enemies. Now you have a clear goal for them to get to me. I would feel better if I know that you're safe . "

"And how long will it last? As far as I know, during all this time the progress in business has not been particularly impressive !"

“I don’t know, baby, honestly. Now you’ve found a place to start digging. I understand that your whole life is in New York. I promise if this takes too long, I’ll find a way to get you home as soon as possible .”

Peter sighed.

"I have to warn Ned that I will be away for a while. But my phone was left at the police station ... What about the school?"

"You will finally have a reason to use the SI phone, which I offered you for a long time. Friday will reconfigure your number there. Regarding the school, I spoke with your principal, you will be sent material and assignments by mail, you will study remotely ."

"Wait, you called Director Morita in the middle of the night ??? Where did you get his number ???"

"I apologized and said that this was an unforeseen situation. May recently put me on your school's emergency contact list. Once I had to explain to Morita through her phone why sometimes in the middle of the day you are pulled out for an "internship" while Spider-Man rescues people from burning buildings. Why do you think we recently improved the anti-inflammatory function of your suit?" Tony looked at him disapprovingly. "And we exchanged phones just in case. And I think that given this whole situation, you should finally be done with all this "Mr. Stark".

"I Try Now at th but did not promise that adapt quickly. I do not understand how I could miss trekking Mae to school!"

"Apparently, it passed through you, probably the administration just wanted to discuss your attendance with your guardian, if she is aware of your absences. And if it turned out that no, then either she would be offered to talk to you about it, or maybe the school psychologist would already talk to you. I don't know how everything works there now. At one time I preferred to leave school as soon as possible. You can too, but I understand your desire to stay with friends."

Pete frowned in concern as he considered it all. His possible graduation from school as an external student has already surfaced several times in a conversation with a mentor, and he always refused for certain reasons. Now he was hooked on something completely different. Why didn't May tell him she was at school? Does she really think that he is taking too much on himself and chose to omit what, in her opinion, should not worry him? She used to tell him everything!

"Sleep a little more, as I understand you have a long journey ahead of you today ." Tony sighed and got up from the chair.

"I don't think I can ." Stark Jr sighed as well, but he sank down on the pillow and threw back the covers a little, moving to make room. Fortunately, the size of the bed allowed.

"You ... you should rest too ."

Iron Man looked at him for a few moments, because such an invitation was very unexpected for him.

"Okay, kid," he smiled slightly and crawled under the covers of the child. Peter immediately clung to his side. Tactility has always been characteristic of him, and now he seemed to no longer hold back his impulses with Mr. Stark.

The teenager closed his eyes and for a while they lay in silence. None of them even dozed off.

"May I leave the name Peter?" the Spider suddenly broke the peaceful silence. "This name has been my name for as long as I know myself . If necessary, I can try to respond to the name Christian , but it will be very difficult ..."

"Of course you can, baby. To be honest, I think the name Peter suits you better ." the billionaire smiled and slightly turned his head, gave in to the impulse and kissed the child on the forehead.

"The name Christian is also very pretty ." the boy muttered with a smile.

"Your mom chose ."

"I won't be able to meet her before I leave?"

Peter saw on the news a couple of days ago that Pepper was in the slums of Rio de Janeiro with an SI charity project. But I didn't know when she was coming back.

“I don’t think she will have time to arrive. Agent Treston wanted to take you away right away as soon as he informed the management of the test results, but I didn’t let you wake you up in the middle of the night and drag you into the middle of the night. You know what, let's call Pepper right now!” Tony took out his phone and started looking for his fiancee in contacts.

"But Rio is only an hour more than ours. Isn't it too early to call ..."

"Better to call early than not call at all, trust me. In this case, she will forgive us if we wake her up." the man pressed the video call icon and they waited. As soon as the call was received, the teenager immediately slid down and the horror did not buried his nose in his father's armpit. Only his hair was visible from under the covers.

"Tony, you have a quarter to five in the morning. If you have insomnia, it does not mean that other people are awake too!"

"Sorry, Pepps ..."

"Wait, who is that with you?"

Iron Man smiled and squinted at the hair that was sticking out from under the covers.

"Spider ."

"Oh, the same kid who refused to join the Avengers and we had to announce our engagement because of that ? The one you don't shut up about?"

"Wait, what ?!" Pete climbed out from under the covers and stared at his father. "Wasn't that a test ?! Could I really join the Avengers ???"

"I will not talk about what the right is, the decision you took then and I was even a little proud of this, but it is not. You can not and is not going to at least a minimum of the following 6 years." 

The teenager sulked, and then it dawned on him that now he can be seen in the cell phone and he blushed slightly.

"Oh, um, hi. I'm Peter ." The spider smiled slightly as he studied the woman on the phone screen. She was his mom, wow.

"Nice to meet you, Peter ." Potts smiled at him . Tony had already seen that she was fascinated by the child: those curls, the puppy look and the cute behavior. Who wouldn't? "Tony, how old is Spider-Man? And then I realized that you never told me that ." suspicious squinting asked Pepper , glancing at her groom.

"15."

"15 ?! Tony, when you said kid, I thought he was at least a freshman in college, but not high school!"

"Sorry, I was and will be Spider-Man with or without any support, no matter how old I am. I am aware of my responsibility and I cannot help helping people if they need help!" Peter said firmly.

" Pepps , let's talk about it later. You will have a lot of time to yell at me ..."

"Okay ." she sighed with displeasure, but decided to put down the long be so, as has been impressed and moral complex child. "So why aren't you sleeping? Do you come on weekdays, Peter? You don't have school tomorrow?"

"About this ... Yesterday the kid was in the police station. Everyone thought he was our Christian ." Tony paused briefly. "Naturally, he could not pass any DNA test there, so that his mutation would not be detected. Friday told me that there was a match with Chris's prints in the system , I rushed there , and there was Peter. We went to the Complex, where Helen did the test . Everything was confirmed. Peter is our Christian . " in short phrases, as if to avoid any emotion that could be heard in his tone, Iron Man said.

"Oh God, Tony!"

The spider saw tears in her eyes as she looked from her fiancé to her newly found son and back. He felt uncomfortable, did not know what to say or do. So he chewed nervously on his lower lip.

"I'm buying a plane ticket. Why didn't you call me last night? I could be with you in the morning!" said the woman, brushing away the tears that had come out, after a couple of minutes of silence, during which she mastered her emotions.

"That's not all, Pepp ." Tony sighed, hugging Peter's shoulders. "The FBI is taking him somewhere today, this is their protocol of action or whatever, so that the child is not pressured and he can figure out himself and his life. But the main reason is that the FBI has many versions, they need make sure that no one followed Peter's life all this time, and now that it is revealed that he is not who he thought he was, no matter how his life was in danger."

"But this is really nonsense! Who will be all my life to monitor someone? What's the point? How, then, the" they "made a spider bite and our acquaintance? What do they all want from me? Do not you think as you, that time Mary and Richard worked for Oscorp , they could experiment on me, and the radioactive spider just activated my abilities ? This is even more complete madness and than the fact that I turned out to be Christian Stark! "

Tony and Pepper stared at him in horror.

"What? MJ loves conspiracy theories ... It's all her influence ." the teenager scratched the back of his head awkwardly.

"This is his girlfriend ." confidentially said the billionaire, looking at his fiancee.

"Not a girl!" Peter said in a high-pitched voice, blushing a little again. "We're just friends ."

"It's because you're too shy. And who's interested in ..."

Pete groaned and covered his face with his hands. Tony chuckled and ruffled the child's hair.

"Tony, stop embarrassing the kid . Peter, this scenario you have outlined really looks creepy. You really better stay away from all of this until something clears up and you know you can safely return to your past life ."

The spider nodded, sighing. What could he do here.

They talked about it for a while, then the conversation turned to lighter topics. As a result, the communication had to end when Pepper already had to go to the city on Stark Industries business .

Spider-Man smiled happily, it was so easy, without thinking about anything, chatting with two famous people who were just mom and dad for him. Of course, it was a little strange that he accepted this fact so quickly, probably because he was already to some extent attached to Mr. Stark. The guy generally quickly became attached to people, and the fact that he very poorly remembered Richard and Mary and their "parental" love also played a role. Or maybe the "necessary" emotions, which, in theory, should be experienced by a child who, it turns out, lived a fake life, will overtake him later ...

The spider closed his eyes for a moment, placing his head on Tony's shoulder. The next time he opened his eyes, the clock showed half past ten in the morning. Peter sat down and yawned, looked at his father, who was still sleeping peacefully, apparently overcame him after him. The teenager neatly got out from under the blanket and took things, went to take a shower. When he returned to the room, the billionaire was no longer there, so Pete went to the kitchen. On the way, in the common room, he saw Happy, who was sitting on the couch, his head thrown back and snoring loudly. Giggling quietly under his breath, Stark Jr. quickly climbed onto the wall and activated a web shooter (a few laboratory days ago, Mr. Stark presented him with his new development - a silver bracelet configured only for Peter's biometric data, which only he could control and remove. The stylish bracelet contained an improved Spider-Man suit, which enveloped the wearer of the bracelet, if pressed in a certain place.On the same principle, his advanced web shooters worked, Spider himself suggested that one program there, just in case, so somehow for the next They did it in the lab. The wristband was waterproof and shockproof, so Peter never took it off. So he always felt safe when the 24/7 suit was with him and able to help people if they needed it urgently. rather than running into the nearest alley to change, wasting precious time). Attaching a spider web to the ceiling, he went head down and shouted.

"Hello Happy! How are you?"

The man jerked abruptly, suddenly awakening and straightened on the sofa . Peter barely had time to deviate from the direct collision of his foreheads and, laughing loudly, climbed the cobwebs back up.

"How many times have I told you not to do that !!!"

"But-but-but. I'm kind of like your junior boss now, I can do what I want ." jumping to the floor and smiling broadly, Pete said. So the mood for the whole day is guaranteed. "Friday, did you film this ?" he asked the AI, while Hogan stared at him in shock, clearly not expecting that a dandelion boy could turn into an arrogant golden youth overnight. This is what money does to people.

"Of course, Boss Jr."

"Fu-fu-fu, Fri, is not called me like that. Terrible sounds, just Peter. Send video Ned mail, just add in the subject line, so he watched it at home alone ."

The spider turned to the interlocutor and, seeing his expression on his face, hastened to assure him.

"Yes, I'm joking, just kidding. I love you, Happy !" he rushed to hug him, but the man dodged, muttering something about obnoxious teenage spiders.

Spider-Man sighed. With Happy arms have never rolled, but nothing, he insisted.

"Why don't you ever do that to Tony then?"

The spider snorted, settling down on the couch and noticing the large travel bag that lay on the seat on the other side of Hogan .

"Firstly, he can ground me, which means that there is no patrolling, and I will not forgive myself if I could help someone at this time, but was punished. Secondly, I still have the hope that I will someday be able to fly in an Iron Man suit! And thirdly, it is very rare to find him sleeping . "

Happy shook his head with a smile and handed the bag to the teenager.

"Your things. I went to New York at night, May collected them for you ."

"Wow, thanks a lot, Happy !" he was really grateful that Hogan had sacrificed his sleep in order to bring him things. True, Peter did not understand why he simply could not take with him the things that he carried in the Complex. Were they really super expensive, and where the FBI takes him, it's important not to attract attention? By the way, about the FBI ...

"Where's Agent Treston ?"

"I haven't seen him yet ."

"Friday locked him in the room I gave him ." chuckled as Tony entered the room. "Let's have breakfast quietly ."

Pete knew it was kind of wrong to treat a person like that, but he couldn't help laughing.

"How about May , Happy ?"

"She was released on recognizance. In shock, of course, she is nervous, but she is holding on ."

"Look after her, please, while I'm gone ."

Happy nodded gravely.

"Thanks." the teenager smiled and stood up, followed his father into the kitchen, who shouted. "Spider, breakfast!"

"Sorry if my shoulder fell back ." Stark Jr. muttered embarrassedly , opening the cabinet and hiding his face behind its door.

"Nothing, kid. I really needed those few hours of rest ." Tony smiled slightly at him. "Your new phone ." he handed him one of the recent SI novelties. "You're with me it tested, so I think you will understands camping . There's a set of headphones, charging and everything as it should be. The Power Bank I tell you later bring, he charged. And your soundproof headphones, if you feel that everything around becomes too many, put them on. Better safe than suffering from sensory overload, especially when I'm not around to help you. You know that yourself . "

"Yeah ." Spider nodded, taking his favorite cereal from the locker. When he reached for the bowl underneath, the man slapped his arms lightly.

"Nope, no cereal. Growing boys, especially those with insane metabolism, need a good full breakfast. And you will take the cereal with you on the road to chew. And I'll get you a couple of energy bars, I recently commissioned Helen's team to develop some kind of snack to meet your needs between meals. Project "Food for Spider" Tony grinned and continued. " of course not yet finalized, but those copies that are already at the intermediate level should be enough for you for a couple of hours. I'll also make you some sandwiches and a couple of fruits. So, I will still take the first aid kit from the medical wing with those drugs that have been synthesized for you, I certainly hope you do not need them. And also, probably, you need to give you some money. I don’t know where you’ll go, but you’ll probably stop at gas stations, so buy yourself something if anything. Well, in general, just in case you have money. Only I don't have cash, I'm used to paying everything through Friday. By the way, Friday, by any chance somewhere in the Complex there was no money lying around? Apart from personal Happy, employees, and Agent Treston?"

"In the room of Mr. Barton for the opening of the venting hidden in the package $ 300 l ares. The room Mr. Rogers under the mattress are $ 600 l ares. The room of Dr. Benner in the bedside table in the book are $ 150 l ares. The bathroom Miss Romanoff in the drain the cistern from the toilet is hidden in a waterproof bag 1200 dollars, 800 euros, 5000 rubles, 3000 hryvnia, 500 yuan, 900 francs ... "

"That's it, don't go on. Natasha has all the currency in the world, of course. But we'll only take dollars. That should be enough. The cistern, eh? Personally, I would never look there if I was looking for money. What can I say - a spy . "the man threw up his hands.

“I think 60 dollars will be over my head…” Spider-Man said hesitantly, feeling a little shocked by it all.

" Shish . I'll decide how much money you need. It seems to me that I forgot something. What else do you need? Sorry, I'm not a football mom, I never took my children on a trip. To be honest, I actually Pepper collects somewhere in people ... "

Peter interrupted his father, just suddenly hugging him tightly , smiling radiantly. He was unaccustomed, but very pleased to feel so much care from Mr. Stark. Even May never darted around , collecting it somewhere. This is understandable: their apartment is small, there was no need to look for something somewhere.

"You're very good at it ."

"That's the best compliment, thank you baby ." Tony smiled fondly as he hugged the child back. He could not believe that he had recently tried to distance himself from this teenager, not to let him close to him, but the diligence still failed. And then it turned out that he was his son. Actually, then why should he restrain what he feels? Pepper more than once told him to stop it and then people will reach out to him. This is his child and with him he can behave as he really feels. He will never be like Howard . Never.

"I don't want to leave. I want to meet my mom ." muttered Pete, burying his father's chest.

Tony sighed, kissing the baby on the head.

"Let's hope this isn't for long and you'll meet soon. Now come on, sit down at the table and I'll fry your eggs, bacon and toast. And then I'll go rob the former Avengers ." he chuckled again. "And you go and pack your backpack ."

They separated and the man began to prepare breakfast, while the teenager took fruit from the refrigerator and squeezed out two glasses of juice using a juicer. He left one on the table, and the other took Happy , because he knew that Mr. Stark did not drink juice . Only coffee and sometimes soda if they eat takeout.

Then Spidey threw the rest of the fruit into the food waste bin and took out the butter, began to coat the bread, and then put two pieces into the toaster and set the timer. He loved to spend time with the mentor in the kitchen, even though he did not know how to cook a lot, but there were exceptions, such as the Italian pasta that they once ate for dinner. She was amazing! In the kitchen, Tony always looked like something home - that is , a couple of times shared pleasant memories of his mother.

By this time, when the toasts were ready, he had already cooked eggs and bacon, then carefully took out the toast and set the table for the child.

"Bon appetit ."

"Thank you. But these 7 eggs are a lot for me ..." Usually, when he was visiting the Complex, 5 eggs were enough for him not to be distracted a couple of hours after breakfast for snacks, and the Spider is used to not paying attention to a slight feeling of hunger, if he constantly eats, then he simply will not have time to do something else. With May at home, he ate only 3 eggs, which she began to lay on him (if she did not burn before that) when she found out that he needed more nutrients due to the characteristics of his body. He never told her that he , too, is not enough, they have never been successful Ben financial situation, so that he did not want the death to Aunt strained even more at work, so snacking on sandwiches Delmars when he could. Well, it seems now there will be no more problems with its proper nutrition.

"Eat. I don't know when you will be able to eat normally next time." Tony told him and took out a paper bag, put two boxes of cereal and two packs of napkins in it. "Water! Exactly. Friday, do we have a liter and a half bottles somewhere to get water there?"

"One polypropylene bottle is behind the podium on the stage in the press conference room, and the other is in your lab, boss , from the days when Ms. Potts tried to get you to drink something other than coffee. Second drawer of the table, piled high with those parts. that you cannot disassemble in order to apply somewhere . "

"Got it. Good girl." The man smiled contentedly and headed for the kitchen exit. "And you eat ." he turned to his son for a moment , and left the kitchen.

Spider-Man sighed and obediently began to eat, and then washed the dishes after himself and went to collect his backpack.

As a result, after half an hour he had a backpack with textbooks, equipment and a first-aid kit, a bag with things and a large bag with food and water. He felt like he was ten, but he loved it. Created an atmosphere of something exciting that awaits him ahead, and not how things were in reality. Taking his new phone out of its packaging and leaving his belongings in the living room, Jr. Stark went to the kitchen. There Tony drank coffee - apparently this is what his breakfast looked like today. Peter sat down on the bar stool and began to customize the new phone for himself. When Agent Treston entered the kitchen, he was already in full correspondence with Ned , who had a break. He was upset that his friend would not be there for a while and he could not say why. This was clearly not a telephone conversation.

"Something you sleep for a long time, as for an FBI agent, it is understandable why important cases are so poorly solved, since you spend half a day sleeping, Agent Treston ." the billionaire greeted him. "Coffee?"

"I couldn't open your damn door for 5 and a half hours! I screamed, but no one heard! And your security chief again took the phone from me after I discussed the details of today's trip, so I couldn't even call anyone!" " the man declared angrily, staring at Iron Man. Then he turned his gaze to the teenager, who saw fit to simply ignore the agent, quietly laughing at the memes that his best friend had sent him.

" I see you have already made your child happy with your toys." the agent chuckled, "it just doesn't fall under the no-pressure category at all."

"Peter's phone was left at the police station. He needs a new one, I gave it to him. This is to meet the basic needs of a person in communication with the outside world. In your opinion, I didn't need to feed him, and give me a snack with me, if only something did not influence his decision to stay with his parents when he returned to New York ?! "

Pete looked up from the phone screen as the conversation between the two adults turned into a raised voice.

"Dad will see what happened to the door of the room where you stayed. He cares about the privacy of the residents and guests of the Complex, I immediately realized that the rooms are soundproof as soon as I closed my door. If you weren't there for a long time, we would go to find out what's the matter, agent, no one was going to leave you to starve to death. And I will return the phone to dad when my old one is returned to me. So this is temporary use, I need to somehow keep in touch with the school. Now have a coffee and eat though It’s not known how much time I’ll spend in the same car with you. I don’t intend to endure your breakdowns on me when you didn’t cheer yourself up with a pleasant breakfast in the morning. I beg your pardon, I ’ll go find a better company. " Spider said calmly and stood up, leaving the kitchen. He immediately ran to his room and as soon as the door was tightly closed , he flopped down on the bed and burst out into wild laughter. It was not in vain that he attended the school drama studio for some time, then the truth had to be thrown because of the robotics club and other electives that were more interesting to him, which later also had to be thrown due to being busy with the activities of Spider-Man. But developing a little talent came in handy.

As soon as he laughed, Spider immediately thought about the fact that he called Tony Dad a couple of times in his entire speech. Of course, it was not a direct appeal to him, but the words left his mouth so easily, as if he had said this many times before. I wonder when he started talking? Maybe he really called his parents mom and dad until the moment of the abduction ... Then it explained a little.

Peter left the room and went into the living room with a smile, Happy was no longer there, as were the things. He must have carried them to the car. The teenager shrugged and listened. Agent Treston was actually chewing something in the kitchen, but Tony was nowhere to be heard. So Pete went to Happy's garage, making the most of it while he could reduce his contact with the FBI agent. Peter's father was in the garage with Hogan .

"When are we leaving?"

"As soon as Agent Treston has finished eating. I 'll go get him." said Happy and went to the elevator.

"What was that in the kitchen?" Tony asked, turning to the child.

“I just didn't want you to be angry , and the mood is not very good . ” The teenager shrugged his shoulders, walking up to him.

"Oh baby ." Stark sighed and hugged the child. "If I am angry with someone else, this does not mean that in our communication I will break down on you. I promise."

The spider nodded, hugging his father tightly. They were found only yesterday and they weren't even given time to be together. How long will they not see each other again?

They still had time to discuss a couple of moments when Happy returned with Agent Treston and they got into the car.

Spider-Man was already thinking of saying goodbye to his father, but saw that he was getting into the car with him. In his opinion, Tony replied that he was going to spend them, because if there is an opportunity to spend a little more time together, then why not take advantage of it?

"I am not against , of course, but what have you do not have other things to do? You're always busy, sometimes even days laboratory canceled. Who controls the SI while mom is not in the country?"

Happy started the engine and drove out of the garage.

"The SI is a fine-tuned machine, kid. Nothing will happen to the company if I'm absent from a couple of meetings. You are the most important thing, baby. Neither me nor mom will ever be too busy for you. Even if we meet with the president . " the man chuckled. "Well, in general, when it is safe for you to return, in our free time we will drag you and your mother to all these meetings connected with the family business. In the end, one day the company will be yours. So , in addition to an engineering degree, we are ready to will have to get a degree in business, and maybe also in law . "

"Actually, I wanted to go to chemical sciences ..."

" So there will be 4 degrees."

The spider stared at his father in horror, not realizing that he was joking, or would he have to study all his life along the way? Pete hasn’t thought so far about his future, he has only decided on an approximate direction, and here, it seems, everything has already been decided for him.

"By the way, I need to change my will. What's with your full name?"

"Hmm ... I thought about Peter Anthony Benjamin Stark . Of course Ben was not my uncle, but he really played a significant role in my life. Even if it turns out that he was somehow involved in this whole situation, I still want to leave his name. It seems he always wanted the best for me . "

"Yes ... about that, kid ." sighed Tony, "I'm not going to turn you against anyone until I have any evidence, but I thought a lot about those words that you told me prompted you to become Spider-Man. He didn't know about yours. superpowers . And as I understand it, he said it is not based on the explanation of why someone with abilities mills iT Xia hero. So why would he say such a thing at all? Push you to the right it decision, that's why. If it can be, that your DNA change is not an accident, you become a local superhero ... "

"But he protected me then in the alley when he died! He covered me with his back and the bullets hit him, not me!"

"Maybe, according to someone's plan, your time had not come yet ." the man shrugged. "Sorry if it sounded too harsh, kid. I wish it were not true, as well as the fact that you remain a carefree child with pink glasses on your eyes as long as possible, but you go out on the streets almost every day and see how the world can be shitty . So in our situation anything can be. We cannot rule out anything . "

Peter was seriously sick. He could not imagine that his kind uncle Ben could be part of someone else's insidious plan. That they themselves can be manipulated all their lives, pushing to the necessary solutions for someone under. views of his own. It always seemed to him that Ben and May loved him very much and would do anything for him. And that's what happened to Ben. Their attitude seemed very sincere. But, to be honest, the teenager now remembered that when his body was being rebuilt due to the bite of a radioactive spider and he suffered because of this, even convincing his uncle and aunt that he was fine - it was just a terrible virus, he did not look very rosy ... Why didn't they take him to the hospital? Spider-Man used to justify this by saying that they doubted their insurance would cover it. It was a stupid assumption, yes, but he simply had no other ideas then, and then everything became more than fine with him, so he gave up on it. But now this question began to haunt him again, he wanted to call May right now and ask about it. In addition to all this, Spider-Man had never imagined before that the Parkers might not be family. Maybe those who kidnapped him really did something to him? Because a one-year-old child seems to already understand something, at least he can somehow distinguish between parents. And he probably would have noticed that the people who became his new family were strangers to him ... If we still admit the possibility of Mary and Richard's involvement, then shouldn't he be disgusted by the name they gave him? And since, perhaps, he was subtly manipulated so that he began to use his superpowers for the good of people, what decisions did he make in his life? Now he had to delve deeply into himself and determine whether it was his desire to be Spider-Man at all or whether this would never have occurred to him without outside help ...

"I don't know ... I don't know anything !" tears of annoyance, anger and despair welled up in his eyes. "I need to think carefully about all this ... I will make a decision after I know the answers to all my questions. I hope this is not in a hurry."

"Uh-huh." Stark nodded and hugged the child tightly by the shoulders and kissed his head. He wanted not to upset him, he did not want to be a little hard to be a little bit similar to his father, but the idea that Peter can love and honor those people who could be involved in the fact that his he and Pepper took , infuriated him.

Peter noticed that his mentor, or now a former mentor (?) Had shown more affection for him yesterday and today than he had ever taken together. He was not surprised by this, somehow immediately taking it for granted . He really liked it. This is his father and they've been separated for 14 years, damn it!

Pete sighed and rested Tony's head on his shoulder, watching him search for something on his phone.

"I have a couple of your other childhood photos, would you like to see?"

"Of course. The earliest photos that I have seen are after 5 years, when I already lived with May and Ben, in fact they took them ."

The billionaire frowned, he knew that the life of his child after 5 years was more or less in order, of course he was not as wealthy as he could have been if he had not been kidnapped, but what happened to him in the period from one to four years was he did not know and the man doubted that he would ever find out, since those who could give him at least some answers are dead. Is it coincidental? Apart from the Parkers , if they were guilty after all, they had nothing. But, probably, someone was standing over the Parkers , could it be that their interests diverged and someone decided to remove them? It is clear that no one photographed his child during this period, since it was still possible to recognize him from the photo that was circulated in the press, but here's what happened to him when he lived with those people ... Tony pursed his lips, trying to distract himself from gloomy thoughts and opened the right folder in his data warehouse. And the further part of the trip was a little more carefree: the man gave pleasant memories, flipping through the touching and funny photos, and Stark Jr. made sure that the three of them were really happy together then, felt a slight regret that he did not remember this, and hoped that they could do it make up for everything when the situation is settled and he can return.

"It's a pity that we weren't there at all the other stages of your growing up and I don't have any more photos together ..."

The spider suddenly sat upright, remembering something.

"Actually, I think you can find at least two more. Can I?" he reached for his father's phone.

Tony shrugged, wondering what else Peter might find and how does he even know there is more. But he handed the phone to him.

The spider quickly entered a query into the data warehouse and opened the required folder and began to search for the photos that he hoped were there. At least of one thing, he was certain. He found it pretty quickly and showed it to his father. It showed a boy in a plastic Iron Man mask holding a poster with his newly received autograph. He stood in front of the table where he sat actual superhero during his autograph session at the " Stark Expo 2011 " . In fact, there were many children in the line in the same masks and with different paraphernalia of Iron Man, Peter then knew that they were being delayed and they wanted to get an idol's autograph as much as he did, but then, as they say, he was so amazed a star that didn't budge until he was pushed away. Tony, who after the previous autograph, did not receive another piece of paper for signature, looked up. Then every child was photographed, apparently in order to choose the best photos and consecrate the event in the press and on the company's website, but after the Hammer drones ruined everything, nothing was published. Spider-Man was sure that if they did publish something, they would definitely choose this photo, since everything here looked as if Stark was showing attention to a little fan, and not indifferently signing a bunch of different things.

"You were at the Expo ... This life is so close, just in another area of New York ... I could not imagine, otherwise I would look at every child, hoping to find out ... Please tell me that you left before everything turned into chaos there! "

"I was such a fan!" Pete smiled a little sadly, again taking the phone from his father and leafing through the photos in the same folder, as if helping himself to remember those events. "I spent months trying to persuade May and Ben to set me up as soon as the exhibition was announced. Refused all gifts for all the holidays, if only they saved up for tickets. I always liked Tony Stark, you, that is, and then when you declared yourself Iron As a man, this veneration increased. It became downright idolatry, having received this cheap mask and gloves, I ran everywhere with them, did not want to take off anywhere: neither for sleep, nor in the bathroom, nor to school, either before the exhibition or after. Stark Expo was for me an outrageous dream, because I could feel closer to the hero and to all those modern advanced technologies. I always looked at you and Bruce Banner - two of my favorite scientists. I wanted to be the same, grow up and make breakthroughs in science, to benefit people. Whoever prompted me to become Spider-Man, some part of me, I hope significant, made this decision, since it all started at Stark Expo. Panic, screams, fear ... "he for a moment closed his eyes, shaking his head, "Us May and Ben were separated by the crowd and then I see a drone, apparently he recognized my mask as your real one. And I think that if you can, then why can't I? I can be brave, I can be like you, and destroy bad guys and robots. You destroyed the drone before it could do anything. And he also told me that I got a good shot, as if it were me! Seeing Iron Man in action so close ... it was more than I could ever imagine. You were a hero to many, but that day became my own. Of course, no one believed me, they thought that I invented everything for myself, a childish fantasy and all that, but I knew that it was all true. Since that day, my desire to help people, to be a hero, to be like you has increased significantly. My hero has always been Tony Stark, before and after he became Iron Man. Was, is and always will be. I know that you want me to be better than you, you think that in some ways you could act differently, but I love you the way you are. Thank you that you have always been and are in my life, even if you are really close, but even though somewhere far away or in case of a chance meeting ... "Stark Jr. found a photo where a little boy in an Iron Man mask and Iron Man himself are looking at each other. Apparently, at the time of the frame, not all the video cameras were destroyed, since many pictures of the battle were saved in the data warehouse. He showed the photo to his father and when he did not react for a long time, he looked up at him. Tony Stark was crying. Silently he looked at the photo, and then turned his gaze to his child and cried. He slightly changed his position and hugged the teenager tightly, unable to find the words to say to all this. The man could not explain his emotions: this is horror from the fact that his child could die there at the Expo, this is also the memories of the day how he was scared for a little boy of the approximate age of his own son, who then dreamed of him in nightmares for some time, this is also his fault for unconsciously encouraging his a child for heroic activity, this is a rejection of oneself, that someone can admire him so much, and much more.

“I love you very much, Pete." finally said Tony and added to himself that he would try to justify everything that the child thinks about him. He thought that all the fanaticism of Peter had long disappeared, the stars in his eyes had to be fought for the first couple of laboratory days, but then they seemed to find contact and their understanding became better, the teenager was not shy and behaved like normal, and not still amazed star. But it turned out that what he was experiencing was simply much, much deeper, hidden in his soul. Tony wasn't sure he deserved it all. But he will strive to earn it. His son deserves it." I'm proud of you. You are such a wonderful child. Sometimes I’m madly angry with you because of some of your reckless antics, but it’s just because of my concern about you. I want you to be alive, healthy and happy. Do you understand? Whatever you do, you will never disappoint me. You don't have to strive to be like me, because I'm going to leave out the fact that I'm not a very good role model with all my shit, but the point is, you're already better than me. And you can go your own way, I will always support you and try to understand. Will you change your mind about being Spider-Man? I will destroy the suits. Would you like to enter MIT? I will buy an apartment in the city where you will study, so that we have the opportunity to spend time together. Would you like to inherit SI? Well then, my mother and I will have to think about the second child." Tony managed a chuckle. "I'm kidding, of course, but I want you to understand. You will not return all the time that was lost, but now I want to delve into all areas of your life to the maximum, be physically close and rejoice at your successes. Because you are my child and I have no one dearer than you. Of course mom and your Uncle Rhodey don't count, but that's a little different." He chuckled a little again. "And even if the test results were negative, I think that we would someday get to the level of relations that I am talking about now. Because while Helen was doing the test, I thought about this whole situation and came to the conclusion that Peter Parker has all the qualities of the ideal child that I would like for myself. I w a n t e d you to be our Christian and would be very disappointed, much more than with all those fake children, if it wasn't.

Now Peter was crying. They never had such a level of sincerity; they never spoke frankly about their feelings and attitude towards each other . And now it was all just ... a lot to process. It seems that they are saying goodbye almost forever. To be honest, Spidey had thoughts last night that even if he does not turn out to be Christian , he will still remain in Mr.Stark's life because of his heroic activities, but in fact nothing can connect him with the man behind the mask, Spider thought that Iron Man communicates with him only because of Spider-Man, and Peter Parker did not give up to him for nothing . But now m supper has proven otherwise, leave in a hint that before they knew the truth, he felt something deeper for him than just a desire to instruct. So now, along with a kind of sadness, Peter felt a lot of relief.

"Why didn't you tell me earlier that you were at the Expo?"

“Somehow it wasn’t necessary,” the teenager shrugged his shoulders, gradually calming down.

"God, kid, you've been through so much. I don't understand that this is some kind of evil fate of the Stark fate ..." the billionaire sighed.

"The main thing with us now already all right, right? And then , what is left to decide what will get better!"

"I am amazed how you can still be so optimistic. I wish I could be so too ." the man smiled slightly and ruffled the child's hair.

The car stopped and looking out the window, Pete saw that in the middle of the deserted road, apparently at the agreed meeting point, there were three black jeeps.

"Is this escort obligatory?" he turned to his father with a slight panic in his eyes.

"Now you're a big shot, get used to it, Underoos !" Tony chuckled and patted his son's curls again. "So, fatherly instructions ..."

"Yes, I remember I remember my vague midway between what you did and what you didn't do ." mumble Spider, opening the door.

"No." Iron Man put a hand on his shoulder, stopping him from getting out of the car. "Be careful and when the situation can do without your participation, do not be heroic, okay? Suit with you?" 

"Always ."

"Okay. Remember the panic button. If anything, I will rush as quickly as I can, wherever you are ."

Stark Jr. nodded and finally got out of the car, Tony following. Happy has already dragged his bag of things into the trunk of one of the Jeeps. Agent Treston stood by the cars and talked to other agents. The spider counted 6 more people besides him. Is that his guard? He felt a little uneasy.

He and his father approached the middle jeep, where the back doors were open, apparently in this car Pete was supposed to go. All the agents introduced themselves and said that in the car where Peter will drive, there will be three agents with him (unfortunately, including Agent Treston ), in other cars that will follow behind and in front there will be two agents.

"Such a cortege does not attract attention at all, at all ." the teenager muttered irritably.

"Such protocol," Agent Norington shrugged. She looked the most affable and seemed to be younger than the others. She immediately endeared Peter to herself. "Everything will be fine ."

He sighed and got into the car. I put the food bag in the middle of the back seat, like a buffer between him and the FBI agent who will sit with him in the back, and put the backpack at his feet. While the rest of the agents took their places, Tony walked over to the still open door and pulled out his seat belt and buckled the teenager.

"I'm not 3 years old, I can buckle up myself!" Pete snorted angrily again.

The man met his gaze in silence, and Spider sighed.

"Travel pillow. Here's what I forgot. I hope you stop at a normal gas station and buy one first, okay?"

"Okay ."

Stark pushed his son's bangs back a bit and pressed his lips to his forehead. The spider was surprised by this, since he did not think that his father would already show any elements of affection in public. Pulling back, the man wished him a good journey and closed the doors. As they drove away, Peter stared at the side window, then at the back for a long time, until he could no longer see either Tony, or Happy , or Audi.


	3. In way. The first day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> «texting»

As soon as there was no point in looking out the window, Peter took his new phone out of his backpack and checked his mail, there were already some homework from the teachers, so he decided to start with what he could do on the road, namely literature. He got acquainted on Wikipedia with Faulkner's contents "The Sound and The Fury", to read which they were given a month and another week to write a monologue on a free theme. During this month, they will discuss the book in the classroom and, judging by its description on Wikipedia, it is the second part about a Harvard freshman, on the basis of which it is easy to determine that he is depressed and his condition worsens, these monologues, as Peter assumed, will be passed on to the school a psychologist to analyze and analyze the hidden problems of adolescents, which do not externally show. Secondly, he was sure that everything was in order with him morally, and secondly, he had no idea how to write. If you omit everything connected with his life with Tony Stark, then it turns out, and he had nothing to write about. The spider downloaded "Instagram" and, having logged in, found Betty in their subscriptions, with whom they visited literature together and wrote to her in Direct about their teacher's suggestions for example topics for monologues. He assumed that not, since then the essence of the work would be lost, but still he wanted to hope that he would be able to push off from something, because, naturally, he could not write about anything that was happening in his life. Of course, a teenager could still write to MJ, she also visited literature, but he already guessed that she would raise some politically difficult topic, so don't expect inspiration from her push.  
Waiting for an answer, Stark Jr. found a website on the Internet that had the cheapest price for an electronic version of the book he needed and dropped the link to his father with the signature: «If you are not busy, can you please download the book and send it to me in PDF 🙏?»  
The answer came quickly enough.  
«Did you get bored so soon on the road? What can't you download yourself? Can Friday give you a better list of books based on your greatest preferences?»  
«This is homework. I cannot download it, because I am against piracy, and to buy a book on this site, I do not have my own bank account. May, of course, just in case, gave me access to her card a long time ago, but I never used it, and now I won't. Usually I borrow books from the school library, but now I don't have this opportunity 😔 »  
There was no answer, the Spider was not worried about this, since he understood that his father was apparently busy and would answer later. So he returned to the correspondence with Betty, who had already answered him.  
«Hi Peter. No, she didn't say anything like that. I think you can ask her yourself about this in the next lesson. Why weren't you there, by the way? Are you sick?»  
«Thank you Betty. No, everything is okay. Just family circumstances. I do not know what time I will not be here yet... »  
«Oh, do you want me to ask her for you?»  
«No thanks, I'll figure it out :)»  
Actually, everything was as he expected. Spider-Man sighed and looked at the agent who was sitting next to him.  
"Sorry Agent Gibbs, did you go to Faulkner's school? What did you write your monologue about? Or have you not been asked about this? "  
“To be honest, I don't remember anymore. But this was the first practice before writing college essays. It helped me a lot. Can't decide on a topic? " the man looked at the teenager sympathetically.  
"Yeah." Pursing his lips, Peter nodded.  
"She will come. If there is still time before childbirth, then I can advise you to relax and not think about it, the topic itself will somehow find you. "  
"Thanks." he sighed back and was distracted by his phone as Michelle wrote to him.  
«Hey loser, I heard you won't be at school for a while. What about Decathlon? We can transfer team training to Skype. We will have a competition soon. »  
«Sorry MJ, I don't think I will have the opportunity to attend the online training. But I promise I will find a way to train. 3 months left until the next contest! I think I will be back long before them and will be able to join the training again. If that doesn't suit you, give up my spot on the team to Flash. He is looking forward to it and will be glad. »  
«I'll be back? Have you gone somewhere? Why?»  
«This is not a topic that should be discussed in correspondence or over the phone. When I know everything for sure, I'll tell you. I promise. I wish I could say something right now, but now I don't know much. I'm sorry. "  
«Okay, loser, we're counting on you. You know what I think of Flash. The place in the team is still yours. Don't let us down. »  
«I'll try!»  
Jones sent him a peace sign in return and Pete sighed again. He left an unpleasant aftertaste from his correspondence with her. It seemed that it was not his fault in all this, but he still felt guilty.  
"Peter, do you mind if I turn on the radio?" Agent Shoherty, who was driving, turned to him.  
"Of course not. It does not bother me." The teenager smiled at him slightly, looking up at him for a moment, and again turned his attention to the phone screen, as he received a notification of a new message. In general, the atmosphere in the car was peaceful, he expected that he would feel constantly tense because of agent Treston, but he was silent for now, and accordingly did not cause any more hostility.  
The message turned out to be from Tony.  
«Here is access to the bank account. I opened another one and transferred the money there, while it is in my name, but it is yours. When we deal with the documents, we will reissue. The balance is unlimited. Buy whatever you need. »  
«Dad! That's not what I asked for! 😠 »  
Stark Jr. felt, to put it mildly, dissatisfaction. Because of this feeling, for the first time he turned to his father in such a way, his brain simply did not generate the address "Mr. Stark". But at the same time, Spider was somehow afraid to even mentally call Tony "dad", what can we say about turning live. It's just that it was all too fast and he did not know how the billionaire would perceive it and how it would sound from his lips in general. The texting, however, turned out to be quite easy. With Pepper, the address "mom", when he talked about her with his father, also came out somehow easily, as if he was talking about a completely stranger and such an appeal meant nothing. Since he was only talking to the woman on a video call when they met in reality, he was also not sure that he would be able to immediately address her in the way he supposedly needed. It just takes time to realize all this, to accept and associate names with people.  
«And I do as I see fit 😉 Listen, kid, my psychotherapist once said that I need to learn to take care of people without showering them with money, since giving money is the easiest thing, but showing real emotions for me, you see, it's very difficult. But I don't know how to do it differently and did not try to rebuild, since those people who really need me and so with me and not because of the money, and they are used to such antics of mine. I hope you already know how I feel about you. Money is just my knowledge and peace of mind that you can afford everything you need or just what you want, accordingly, you will always be full, dressed, shod and satisfied. I ask you to look at it from my side, please. »  
Wow, serious texting. The spider never imagined that he could deal with such a thing. But now I felt as if they were sitting nearby and talking normally.  
«I seem to understand. I know that you care about me. Thanks.»  
«Don't be thankful for that, baby. You are my child, I will do everything for you. »  
Spider-Man did not know what to answer, so after a couple of seconds of a hitch, he wrote.  
«I love you ♥»  
«It's mutual, Underoos.»  
Peter bought the book on the website and decided for himself that he would use this account only when he really needed something, as he did with the pocket money May gave him - he spent it only on the subway or bus, snacking and sometimes going to the movies with Ned.  
He already wanted to start reading, but all the same, the correspondence with his father did not give him rest and he opened it again, deciding to ask the question that interests him. Texting can help avoid awkwardness.  
«I didn’t know that you were seeing a psychotherapist...»  
The answer came faster than Pete expected. He thought that his father would respond with something like not wanting to talk about this topic. But he apparently decided to be frank. The spider appreciated it very much.  
«Yes, there was a case several times, and that was all over, I went only because of the persuasion of your mother, who was tired of calming my nightmares and panic attacks, and that was just the tip of the iceberg. Then, somehow, due to the affairs of the Avengers, I had to cancel the scheduled session and I never returned to the therapist. You need to really want to understand yourself and trust the doctor for the sessions to be successful. You know, I made the excuse that I stopped walking with my busyness, but I really think I just didn't want to dig my shit. Reviewing all sore topics and giving very unpleasant memories is not for me. Since I blocked it all, it manifested itself in the form of huge anxiety, nightmares and other things. This isn't right, Pete. This is something to work with, but I'm not sure I'll ever find the courage to try again and walk this path to the end. »  
«You are the bravest person I have ever seen. What is that worth of your flight to the Wormhole in 2012. I watched the news live. I swear my heart sank. I couldn't believe that my hero would never return. Ben and May tried to pull me away from the TV, but I cried and screamed and kicked, so they decided to let me watch further. It is not right to force a person to do what he does not want, but you are also right, you cannot keep everything to yourself, you need to speak out and judge, let go. Not with a therapist, but at least with close people you trust. With me, with my mother, with Uncle Rhodey...»  
Colonel Rhodes was also surprisingly easy to call an uncle, since Tony called him that, there was simply no doubt about his title. Maybe it's just so far only in correspondence, it is not known how it will be in live communication.  
«Yes, kid, you understand the scheme well. Even if you hang a lot of NDAs on a person, you still can't trust him, at least for the couple of sessions that I had. Of course, I didn’t want to touch on this topic in my correspondence, but since I accidentally came up with it ... You know, after Helen overcame her crush on Thor, she met a great guy - Zachary Lee. He is a psychotherapist, as special in his field as she is in genetics. Has radically changed the perception of themselves and the world for many people, has a lot of positive reviews. Helen invited you to meet yesterday. If you want, of course. Just one meeting. It's just... I imagine what you see on the streets, Peter. And I know that you are not telling anything bad. I listened to your Happy voice messages - there is one continuous positive. Sorry, maybe I will seem like an inveterate skeptic, but I don't believe that you return stolen bicycles all day long, take cats from trees, show the way to tourists and you are instead treated to churros. Did you even talk to anyone about how you nearly drowned in the Hudson? Have you developed a phobia? When you stay overnight at the Base, Friday tells me that you don't sleep well. And that's just what I know. I did not touch on this topic, knowing that between us there is not yet the level of trust to really talk about such things. But I was hoping you had someone to talk to. If not a psychotherapist, then at least me and his mother. Baby, please. I know from myself, I will repeat your words, that you cannot keep all this in yourself and experience yourself. Don't let it get deeper than it is now. I know that you are much braver than me. I know that you can find strength in yourself, unlike me, and really ask for help if you need it.»  
Peter swallowed. Indeed, the picture on the streets was terrible. Almost every day to see the difficult fates of people, sometimes not to allow them to take the last step, to allow them to pour out their emotions on him ... Returning home after another exhausting patrol, most often he did not pass out instantly, as soon as his head touched the pillow, but closed his eyes and saw faces of these people, he thought about whether he did everything in his power, whether he would be in time next time and whether he would come to this in their situation. Not so long ago, he became in his suit as a charity event organized by May, visiting children in hospitals, doing a couple of flips for them, taking pictures and cheering them up. He looked at these sick children, whose hope of recovery was very small, and how faint smiles appear on their faces when he just talks to them, it… it broke his heart. He did not understand why such innocent souls had to suffer and leave too soon than they deserved?  
And that was just the tip of the iceberg. Tony knew only about the Hudson, about something else he could only guess. But his almost drowning in the Hudson was a trifle compared to the elevator shaft in Washington, we will put a warehouse on it, the plane crash on Coney Island, remember Ben, who died in his arms, and much more. After the Hudson, for some time he could not bring himself to take a shower, somehow contrived to use only the sink to tidy himself up. After Washington, elevators became a taboo for him. Only in the Complex, together with someone, could he use them and then, periodically shuddering. After the warehouse, when he walked past construction sites and heard the noise of concrete being installed, he was overtaken by panic attacks, with which he somehow managed to cope with the help of tips on the Internet, he could not be in large rooms for a long time, such as a garage in the Complex, for example because he began to think that at any second the walls and ceiling could collapse on him. After Coney Island, he is sure that if he still happens to fly an airplane, then he will first drink pills for motion sickness, so that from the side effect of most of them - drowsiness - sleep the entire flight, because otherwise he simply cannot get on board the plane, he , at the very least, it will be very shaking and it will manifest itself more physically than mentally. After Ben died, nightmares never left him, at times they let go, but did not leave. And these "after" over time became more and more. He knew that there was some kind of professional psychological name and methods of getting rid of this, but at the same time, he assessed his emotional state as quite satisfactory. He can handle it all. Naturally, Pete never said anything to anyone about anything, as he believed that they simply did not need to know all this. Sure, the idea of sharing this emotional burden with someone whose job is to listen to it was attractive, but he didn't think he really needed it.  
«I'm fine. I promise if I feel that something is out of scope, I will seek help.» composed a response from a teenager that was supposed to satisfy his father. So it seems to have happened.  
«I believe it will be so.»  
Stark Jr. sighed and still began to read the book to distract himself from the intense correspondence. The mood has completely soured.  
He had already read the first part of the book and ate half a pack of cereals when they stopped for gas somewhere on the outskirts of Buffalo, judging by the road signs. It would have been cool to see Niagara Falls in real life and not on TV, but Spider-Man was not on a tour here, unfortunately. He got out of the car, watching the crown of his head as one armored black jeep blocked the exit from the gas station, and the other blocked the entrance. It looked just ridiculous. Spider never thought that what is shown in films about special services really looks the same in real life. He now understood how Sam and Dean felt when they got into a series about a hospital in some episode - "Sexy Doctor" or something like that. Shaking his head, Spider-Man stretched, then walked around one of the gas stations and entered the building after one of the agents. He was glad to stretch his legs. Agent Shoherty queued up to pay for the gas, and Peter searched the racks for a travel pillow. It would really come in handy since his neck was already a little sore. The pillows were found at the bottom of one of the shelves and without looking at them, he immediately chose a blue pillow with Iron Man helmets, just like one of his favorite pajama pants. Pete glanced at Agent Treston, who followed him through the gas station a meter away, his expression blank. Suppressing a grin, he went to the checkout, grabbing a large pack of M&M's from one of the shelves on the way. Perhaps Stark Jr. was a little prejudiced towards Agent Treston, but he could not rebuild himself and stop looking like such a child. Perhaps, in this whole situation, he needed to throw off all his negativity on someone. After paying, the teenager returned to the car and unpacked the pillow, put it on his neck and took a selfie, sent it to his father with a winking emoticon and a signature that he really loves fan paraphernalia.  
In response came a heart and a question about the attributes of Spider-Man.  
«To be honest, I haven't seen anything with Spider-Man anywhere. I'm just a friendly neighbor, I'm very far from the level of the heroes of the Earth, so I don't think that my paraphernalia is released somewhere. And, if it were, buying it would be somehow narcissistic, or something.»  
While they corresponded, the cars were rebuilt and soon, when the other two had refueled, they drove on.  
«Don't underestimate what you are doing, Spider. By the way, the company that is officially engaged in the production and distribution of Avengers paraphernalia wrote me a request for permission to release your paraphernalia. I kept forgetting to ask you this. What do you think about that? Some of the money will go to charity. You can choose the company yourself.»  
«This… this is wow! So cool! I'm all for it! Homelessness organizations in New York will really need this money! Is it only possible to get the first set from each item of the product? I'll give it to Ned. He will be delighted! He is my number 1 fan!»  
Previously, Spider and May could write as leaders among his main fans, but now he did not know at what level their relationship was, whether they would communicate further and see each other at all.  
«Hey, I'm your number 1 fan. Then there might be your friend, and probably Happy. It is only in appearance that he is gloomy, but in fact he loves you. Sure you may. Now Friday will write a confirmation email.»  
«Yes, I know about Happy. I'm sure that soon he will be kinder in appearance, I'm working on it;). Thanks!»  
Spider-Man with a smile opened the pack of chocolates and reopened the book on his phone and continued reading it.  
"Help yourself, Agent Gibbs." he handed an open packet to his neighbor.  
"Thanks, Peter." the man smiled and took a handful of sweets. Then Peter held the pack forward so that it was halfway between the driver's and passenger's seats.  
"Will you, Agent Shoherty, Treston?" the latter he offered purely out of politeness.  
Agent Shoherty thanked him and treated himself to it, but Agent Treston refused. Pete shrugged and ate his candy as he read the book.  
In the end, he got tired of this occupation, the sweets were eaten, a few sandwiches too, and a little water was drunk. So the teenager looked out the window, thinking that his hopes of being taken somewhere within the state were not successful. Was it really necessary: to drag him to no one knows where...  
They were already somewhere near Pittsburgh when the hairs on his body stood on end. All the same, he should have foreseen that something would go wrong. His trips somewhere never ended well. And the first peaceful five hours of the journey put his alertness to sleep. The teen really didn't think his luck would extend to non-recreational excursions. He was wrong. The spider could not understand where the danger was and what exactly was the matter, and already wanted to ask Agent Shoherty to stop to go outside and assess the situation. He had not fully studied his spider sense, so he did not know about the scale of the danger it was warning him now.  
Maybe they will pierce the wheel or something like that. But everything fell into place when the Spider saw through the windshield how a truck was rushing in the oncoming lane at high speed, let the car with the agents in front of them pass and suddenly turned right at them. Spider-Man manages to jerk towards the door, automatically grouping himself (what Tony hammered into him at the level of instincts during their joint training - if you can't avoid a blow, minimize his damage to yourself to the maximum, first of all protect the vulnerable spots of your body) , before noting that there are no license plates on the truck. He felt like he was in some kind of action again when there was a blow and a mad grinding grinding into his brain. Their car overturned, Peter hit his head on the roof and shoulder on the back door, but did not lose consciousness. As soon as the car stopped moving, he somehow pulled out his seat belt and pulled the door handle, fell out of the car onto the grass - they were thrown off the road. Pete got to his feet and looked around. The front of the car was crumpled, he saw Agent Treston's open eyes in the window, from behind the door it was not visible what injuries he received, but it was already clear that they turned out to be incompatible with life, and he also saw through the door he opened, turned out under the unnatural corner of Agent Gibbs's neck. The truck that had crashed into them was not nearby, nor were the vehicles with the agents following them. Apparently, they turned around and went after the truck. The teenager did not have time to analyze his condition, his first instinct was to help people. He realized that there was nothing to help the two agents, but he did not have time to process this, since Stark Jr. had already run around the car and tried to open the driver's door to see what was wrong with Agent Shoherty and help him get out. Metal was so crumpled that he would most likely have to use his power to force a man out of the car if he was still alive. He could not concentrate either on the extraneous heartbeat or on his breathing - his head was spinning a little, and his thoughts were rushing one by one and there was not a single definite one - a sure sign of confusion.  
"Peter! Peter, are you okay? What hurts?" heard the Spider through a small noise in his ears the voice of Agent Norington. She and her partner were driving in the car in front, apparently seeing an accident in the rearview mirror, they rushed to help.  
"It's ... it's okay. Agent Shoherty needs help!"  
"They'll help him, Peter, now let's get in the car. We need to get out of town as soon as possible." the woman came closer to him and carefully touching, fortunately, a healthy shoulder, directed the teenager to the road, where her whole car was parked. He let her behave in a sluggish manner. Agent Phillips - Agent Norington's partner caught up with them halfway and showed him his bag of things from the trunk, a backpack from the cabin.  
"Are these all your things?"  
Spider-Man nodded, thinking about a bag of food and water he simply did not have, and there must have already been everything mixed up. They put him in the back seat and left his belongings next to him. He immediately looked out the window at the wrecked car. So much for an armored jeep. Even behind him sitting Agent Gibbs could not survive... Peter was just lucky. If he did not have a spider's instinct, then maybe he could not.  
"Peter!" Agent Norington called out and the teen looked away from the window. "We have ice in the fridge, put it where you need it. We'll go to the hospital now and the doctors will examine you. Aren't you sick? Is your head spinning?"  
He shook his head, still in some kind of shock. If he did have a minor concussion, then his registration has already begun to work on his healing. Still, he took the ice pack that Agent Phillips handed him from the hidden refrigerator between the seats and put it to his head. He put the second bag to his shoulder and looked out the window again. After making sure Pete applied ice, the agent started the engine and they drove towards the city.  
For the second time in his life, he got out of a dangerous situation alive, but someone else did not. Is this some kind of rock? All who defend him are sentenced to death?  
The teenager shook his head, as if trying to get ridiculous thoughts out of his head. An unpleasant sting in my temple. All he wanted now was to become a child again and hide under the covers with his stuffed Iron Man toy. But he couldn't afford to get unstuck. He was now being taken to the hospital and Spider could not afford to take any tests from him there. Lord, in two days he finds himself with them in a similar situation! It seems that in the end someday his personality will be revealed precisely because of them!  
Stark Jr. struggled to remember what it looked like to see the victims of the accidents in the films he saw. It seemed to do without tests, so he could not particularly worry about this.  
When the hand with which he held the ice at his shoulder and his head began to go numb a little, Spider-Man opened the refrigerator and put two bags there. They just drove up to the hospital, apparently the closest one that was on their way. The woman at the front desk led him into a room with a bunch of beds separated by curtains - just like in "House". He felt a little uncomfortable again as he changed into the pajamas provided and settled on the bed. Spider-Man tried to convince the nurse and agents that he did not need this, that he was fine and in general they had to leave soon, why all this ... But who in this world listens to teenagers! He didn’t even have the strength to sulk, and he still doesn’t know how long to wait for the one who will examine him. But the doctor came rather quickly and began to shine a flashlight in his eyes, then asked to name the number of fingers that he showed, asked a couple of questions about his state of health and felt his head, examined his shoulder. He put an ointment on his shoulder and said that it was a severe bruise and if it hurts unbearably, he prescribed painkillers and, accordingly, an ointment.  
He shook his head, still in some kind of shock. If he did have a minor concussion, then his registration has already begun to work on his healing. Still, he took the ice pack that Agent Phillips handed him from the hidden refrigerator between the seats and put it to his head. He put the second bag to his shoulder and looked out the window again. After making sure Pete applied ice, the agent started the engine and they drove towards the city.  
For the second time in his life, he got out of a dangerous situation alive, but someone else did not. Is this some kind of rock? All who defend him are sentenced to death?  
The teenager shook his head, as if trying to get ridiculous thoughts out of his head. An unpleasant sting in my temple. All he wanted now was to become a child again and hide under the covers with his stuffed Iron Man toy. But he couldn't afford to get unstuck. He was now being taken to the hospital and Spider could not afford to take any tests from him there. Lord, in two days he finds himself with them in a similar situation! It seems that in the end someday his personality will be revealed precisely because of them!  
Stark Jr. struggled to remember what it looked like to see the victims of the accidents in the films he saw. It seemed to do without tests, so he could not particularly worry about this.  
When the hand with which he held the ice at his shoulder and his head began to go numb a little, Spider-Man opened the refrigerator and put two bags there. They just drove up to the hospital, apparently the closest one that was on their way. The woman at the front desk led him into a room with a bunch of beds separated by curtains - just like in "House". He felt a little uncomfortable again as he changed into the pajamas provided and settled on the bed. Spider-Man tried to convince the nurse and agents that he did not need this, that he was fine and in general they had to leave soon, why all this... But who in this world listens to teenagers! He didn’t even have the strength to sulk, and he still doesn’t know how long to wait for the one who will examine him. But the doctor came rather quickly and began to shine a flashlight in his eyes, then asked to name the number of fingers that he showed, asked a couple of questions about his state of health and felt his head, examined his shoulder. He put an ointment on his shoulder and said that it was a severe bruise and if it hurts unbearably, he prescribed painkillers and, accordingly, an ointment.  
"So, it doesn't look like a concussion. But it's still better to stay in bed for several days, and if it gets worse, it hurts badly or starts nausea - see a doctor immediately. It's good that they immediately put ice. Now I need a name, surname, date of birth and insurance number to complete the paperwork. "  
Peter was surprised that he hadn't been asked for all this information earlier. Apparently, the badges of the FBI agents at all possible stages of his stay in the hospital contributed to this. Is there a call to parents at all? They're not going to let Tony and Pepper know what happened? Well, nothing, he was going to call himself, only a little later. And the condition of his phone and things in his backpack should be checked.  
"It's classified. The bill can be sent to the FBI's New York office. Thanks." said Agent Phillips and looked at the teenager. "Change your clothes. We are waiting for you in the hallway."  
The curtains closed and Pete sighed. To be honest, he would have stayed in this hospital bed and slept dully for at least a couple of hours - healing took a lot of energy from him. But he had to go, so he got up, changed, and leaving his hospital pajamas on the bed, went into the corridor. There really were agents waiting for him and together they went to the parking lot. Once in the car, Stark Jr. asked him to stop at the nearest gas station and, opening his backpack, began to check the integrity of the equipment inside. Everything was in order - that's what the quality of Stark Industries products means!  
Contrary to his expectations, their next stop did not take place immediately, only after leaving the city. He did not insist, realizing that this was probably some kind of another protocol of actions envisaged by the Bureau - not to stop at crowded gas stations. So as soon as they finally stopped, Spidey jumped out of the car and entered the gas station building first. After asking for the key to the toilet, he went there. As soon as the Spider was inside, he locked the door from the inside, turned on the water in the tap at full power and took out the phone, immediately dialed his father's number.  
"Already missed you? In theory, we should not contact all the time when you are away. How did you contrive that your phone was not taken away?"  
Hearing dad's voice, Peter suddenly sobbed to himself. Something lately, some elements of his behavior amaze him. Apparently, due to the fact that in a stressful situation his body reacted faster than his brain processed what was happening.  
"Peter? Baby, what's going on? Are you okay?"  
“There was… there was an accident. A truck ran into us. My instinct warned me of the danger and I had time to group, otherwise I think I would have been flattened between the front and back seats… It was a deliberate run over, dad. Agent Treston and Gibbs are dead. about Agent Shoherty, I don't know, I was not allowed to help him... " Spider-Man said confusedly in Italian. This was their code. He longed for the idea of a secret code for superheroes just in case, because it was cool, but Mr. Stark flatly refused any references to pop culture, so they agreed on languages. May had Italian roots and it was interesting for him to study this language with her, especially since it was easy for him. It turned out that Tony Stark knows, in addition to English, several other languages. So a phrase or word (in the case of Peter's less awareness) in another language was a conventional sign. Italian - they can listen to us, but I'm safe, Spanish - I'm in danger and right now I'm with the bad guys, etc.  
Pete leaned against the wall and slid down to sit on the floor.  
Tony swore in Italian too.  
"Are you injured? Where are you? Wait, now Friday will give me your location and I'll call the pilot and I'll be there shortly. Stay where you are, okay? Damn it, I was going to give you a suit in a briefcase with me, so if I could control it remotely, but Happy said that it would be superfluous. Yes, fucking is not superfluous, damn it! So, do not repeat these words after me. I will be cured soon. Since the FBI cannot ensure your safety, then you will just sit in the Complex all your life like Rapunzel in her Tower. "  
"Wait ... Not worth it. I'm fine. We stopped at the hospital, I was examined by a doctor. I just had a bruise on my shoulder, and a couple of bruises and abrasions that I didn't even notice are almost healed. As much as I would like to return, but I I can't. If you come along and take me, it will mean that this whole special operation was in vain. It turns out that these agents died in vain. " he continued in a whisper. Yes, he didn't like Agent Treston, but did he deserve this? Nobody deserves to die. And Agent Gibbs? The teenager saw a wedding ring on his hand. Surely, he still has a family that will miss him very much. He and May missed Ben very much, so he knew what it was and would not wish it on anyone. "Wait, did you seriously just link to a Disney cartoon?" The spider smiled through tears.  
"So, I'm actually nervous. And after your marathon on them, it was impossible not to remember something! Are you sure all right? You are not hiding anything, as usual?"  
"Exactly, if something goes wrong, I will write to you."  
"Okay, I'll skip it because I trust you. But if something else happens that I don't like, I will definitely take you wherever you are."  
They were interrupted by a knock on the door and the worried voice of Agent Norington.  
"Peter? Are you okay?"  
He pushed the phone away from his ear and yelled that everything was in order and he just needed a little more time.  
"I have to go." said Spider again into the phone.  
"Okay, keep me posted. Bye, kid."  
"Bye." he passed out and sighed. Looking around the filthy toilet, Spider-Man saw a window ajar. He could easily escape from here, he so wanted. But, as they say, for reasons of conscience, Stark Jr. could not afford to do this, so he got to his feet and went to the mirror for a couple of moments examining his expression. Yes, his first call to Tony Stark was not happy.  
After washing, Peter left the toilet after a while and headed straight for the car. Agent Phillips was already there when Pete climbed into the back seat. Agent Norington, who was waiting for him near the toilet, also took her place and turned to him.  
"Agent Shoherty is in the hospital, his leg and ribs are broken. The condition is serious, but stable. We will visit him on the way back when we take you. Whoever drove into you is caught and will be punished accordingly. You were not the target, Peter. The FBI was transporting several people today, we cannot reveal the details, but the criminals did not know exactly who was going where, but they knew what the transportation would be. So the attack was completely on several roads at the same time. But we still just in case We are going to Cleveland, on the way out, several cars from the local FBI office will join us to escort us. They will escort us to the state border, then others will meet us. "  
"Give Agent Shoherty my very best wishes for your recovery." the teenager smiled slightly, he was glad that someone else from the accident escaped death. Stark Jr. just now thought that all the agents were colleagues and that his escorts were probably experiencing today's events as acutely as he was. The spider felt only a little relieved that today's incident was not because of him. "About dinner would be nice." In fact, he did not want to eat, but since now he does not have a snack, he needs strength to heal, and it is not known when the next time he will be able to eat, especially since their ultimate goal of the path has changed, then, probably, and the travel time increased, so I had to agree.  
"Certainly." the woman smiled at him and after leaving the gas station, they drove on.  
The spider began to write to his father.  
«Agent Norington said that the hit was not specifically because of me, today someone else was transported and the perpetrator did not know which road they would take to whoever he needed, so several crimes took place at the same time. Agent Shoherty is in the hospital with fractures, serious but stable condition. We go to eat, and then agents from the local FBI office will join us for escort, and as I understand it, they will change at the state lines.»  
«Yes, I'm just very tired. I think when we eat and sleep, my regeneration will already cope with everything else.»  
«I was just thinking about how to improve your suit, to make it more durable and also so that it can cover the body in parts. For example, only legs, torso and arms without wrists, so that where clothes do not cover the body, it cannot be seen. The metal won't be as thick as some of my suits, but thick enough to withstand a couple of hits in a crisis. What do you think about that?»  
«You're going overboard. I'm not going to walk like that forever, it's inconvenient! You would have deceived me with bubble wrap!»  
«Bubble wrap is too much, even I understand it. But I can quite find the perfect combination of materials, so that they are both durable and not give you any discomfort in everyday life.»  
«Anything can happen, the shirt is pulled up or something, and someone can see the suit. How can I explain this?»  
«And we'll make it black, for example. You will say that you are always cold and wear thermal underwear, if anything.»  
Spider-Man sent his father a hand-to-face smiley and sighed, hoping that he wasn't serious about it after all.  
They stopped at the Appian Way Cafe&Lounge. It was already half past nine in the evening, so the locals were slowly pulling up to the bar and already starting to play the first games of billiards. He and the agents found their places and after studying the menu, Peter ordered two worksburgers, curly potatoes, a milkshake and a slice of plum pie. It seems that such an amount of food did not seem strange to the agents, they probably attributed this to the fact that teenagers always eat a lot, and he, as it were, is under stress. It struck him as odd that Agent Phillips suggested that he take a sip of his beer. Pete cocked an eyebrow at him, wondering why he was doing this - is it like making him feel more relaxed? From a sip of intoxication does not happen. To trust an adult who allows him to taste alcohol? Is this some kind of test? How can an agent on performance even afford alcohol, even a low-grade beer? Responsible adults, yu-hu. Stark Jr. sighed, he didn't really like it all, but, of course, he will not tell his father about it, since he will definitely get mad and at least someone will be fired. On one side, the teenager understood that the man needed to be distracted after all the tension of this day, but still.  
"I do not drink." he replied, biting into one of the burgers he had brought him. To be honest, the very smell of some alcohol turned his sensitive nose up.  
Agent Phillips did not insist, paying attention to his food. When they had dinner, they paid (it's good that after all, Tony was prudent and gave him much more money with him than the amount that Spidey initially assumed he needed). In the car, Spider took out the noise canceling headphones, put them on, and then put his bag and backpack behind the driver's seat. Throwing off his shoes, he somehow settled into a ball in the back seat, resting his head on the travel pillow, and closed his eyes. Spider-Man thought about how his life had changed dramatically in two days. Yesterday morning he walked to school like Peter Parker, and today as Christian Stark fell asleep 387 miles from his native New York in an FBI car after a terrible accident. Yesterday morning, he thought about how he would sound cooler than he really is next lab weekend with Tony Stark, and tonight he told him not to go too far. Yesterday he could not even think to touch upon the topic of his feelings for the mentor as a parental figure, and the desire to at least hug, and today he could write one hundred and fifty times a day about his love and bask in the manifestations of his father's affection, only at a distance. When he returns home, what still lies ahead and when everything will finally be fine in his life is unknown.


	4. Arrival at the destination

Peter woke up about half past nine in the morning to find that someone had covered him with a blanket. If he could explain the refrigerator in the FBI car in the need for ice in case of possible injuries to agents after special operations, then there is no blanket. But now he was not in the mood to puzzle over this problem, the main thing is that he was more or less comfortable sleeping, although, to be honest, he felt as if reindeer with Santa's sleigh had ridden over him. In a world full of people with superpowers and breakthroughs in science, why hasn’t anyone invented a teleport yet so that they can pay and they’re in the right place, and it’s not clear how long it’s not to drag in the car ...  
Pete sighed and sat down, taking off his headphones.  
"Good morning." Agent Norington smiled at him from the passenger seat. Apparently at night he and Agent Phillips switched places.  
"Good." the teenager yawned and hiding the headphones in a case for them, pulled off a blanket.  
"We recently passed Davenport, this is in Iowa. In the evening, if nothing interferes, we will be at the place. Now we will stop somewhere for breakfast."  
"Good." he smiled and folded the blanket, took out his phone. Sending an SMS to his father with the agent's words that they should be in place by evening, Stark Jr. rubbed his eyes and pulled his knees to his chest, hugged them with his hand and began to look out the window.  
They stopped near the "Wilton Cafe", none of the cars accompanying them got out - apparently the agents sitting there had already had breakfast. The spider immediately went to the toilet in order to clean up, and when he returned to the hall, Agent Norington and Agent Phillips were sitting at one of the tables and drinking coffee. He sat down in an empty seat next to them and took the menu from the woman's hands, began to study it. Spider ended up ordering orange juice, a stack of blueberry pancakes, and a waffle with ice cream, nuts, strawberries, and chocolate syrup. Waiting for the order, he began to inspect the room and his gaze crossed with the young waitress. Spider-Man smiled amiably at her and drew attention to his entourage. He wanted to ask them more about where they were taking him and what awaited him there, but he doubted that he would receive detailed answers to these questions. Finally, their orders were partially brought, he began to eat his pancakes and coped with it quite successfully, until that very young waitress brought him juice and a waffle, which she said was just as sweet, and then, when she put a plate of waffles on the table dripped waffle ice cream on his jeans. Peter could have sworn she did it on purpose! The girl immediately grabbed the napkins from her apron and began to diligently wipe the stain on his pants. While he was sitting in shock, the waitress's wrist was intercepted by agent Norington, and with an angelic smile, she assured her that this underage boy was too tough for her. She left with a chuckle, but Pete saw that one of the napkins she left on the table had a phone number and a name on it. He crumpled the napkin in annoyance and began to eat quickly. This had never happened to him before and he didn't know how to react! Of course, he was pleased with the interest from the opposite sex, but they see each other for the first time in their lives and he is passing here, why is this all?  
"And why do people often confuse friendliness with flirting ..." sighing, the teen muttered under his breath.  
"Because polite people are not often seen from now on." agent Norington answered him.  
"You should get used to such attention, when the public discloses who you are, there will be an incredible number of wallet hunters in your life." said Agent Phillips.  
Stark Jr winced and chose to finish his breakfast as quickly as possible and get the hell out of here. Having quickly finished his meal and tossed money on the table, a little more than he should have, he left the cafe with still a little red cheeks.  
Only sitting in the car again, Spider was able to relax a little and to distract himself, decided to check the news and social networks. There was no information about yesterday's accident, apparently the FBI tried. There was nothing interesting on social media either, so he decided to finish reading the book and write a couple of notes for the basis of the monologue.  
'... when we become who we really are ... cherry blossoms bloom on a winter night. On the day when we become ourselves, excess sediment leaves in our soul. The day we become ourselves, the sun will wake up again and shine a smile in our eyes. And the sad moment will become wonderful in its own way, tired faces will disappear and people around will become easier. The day we become ourselves, we will be happier than everyone else on Earth. On that day, words will become superfluous, names are unimportant, and it will seem that the suffering is over. Everything around will disappear in radiance, we will be who we were born. And understanding and love will lead us further ... '  
The spider thought that based on his monologue, the psychologist would understand that he was writing about the fact that if you do not pretend to be someone else in order to please people, if you show your real character traits, and not try to correspond to some "cool" labels, then it will be easier for you, as well as for those people who care about the real you. So there is no psychological problem here, so you just need to bring the notes to mind and that's it.  
With a satisfied smile, Stark Jr. climbed out of the car as they had just stopped to refuel. Entering the gas station building, he immediately began to bypass the shelves and rake a bunch of snacks into his hands. Agent Phillips, who followed him like Agent Treston used to do, grimaced. Apparently he imagined what kind of smell would stand in the car for the next few hours. Spider-Man did not pay attention to this, focusing on his task - to choose all the most nutritious and delicious. He knew that he needed to be distracted and pay full attention to something, otherwise his brain would begin to generate the faces of Agent Treston and Agent Gibbs, as it had in the first weeks after Ben's death. And his psychological state was, oh, how not necessary.  
After paying for a couple of bottles of water, Peter returned to the car and unloaded the purchases on the empty seat. Opening a packet of ham and cheese Chetoos, he ate while editing his notes. After a while they stopped and as he saw through the windshield and side windows - it was some kind of two-lane toffee.  
"Judging by the navigator, road works are underway. It is too late to bypass and go on the toll road. We'll have to stand." sighing, Agent Phillips reported.  
Pete shrugged, to be honest, he didn't care when they got to their destination. Of course, sleeping in the car is not very comfortable, but he is ready to go for it if they just travel around the country and return back to New York.  
«Is there any progress in the business already? Are you even kept informed?» the teenager wrote a message to his father. Of course, he doubted that some version of the investigation could have been worked out in a day, but he wanted professionals to really actively work on his case, he was not going to spend his life in an unknown place, hiding from hypothetical danger.  
People in traffic have already started to get irritated and honk, and if this continues, the teenager will have to put on his noise-absorbing headphones again. But it seems that he still won't need it: someone pulled a pair of huge speakers from the trunk of their car and connected them to their playlist, the passengers of that car went out onto the road and began to dance. To get a better view, Stark Jr. opened the window and stuck his head out into the street. It looks like it was becoming some kind of flash mob, because people from some other cars also began to join the dance, even climb on the hoods of their cars!  
"I want it too! May I?"  
"No." Agent Phillips pressed a button and locked the back doors.  
The spider chuckled and began to climb out of the car through the window.  
"Where are you going ???" the man tried to grab him by some piece of clothing, but he had already kicked off the open window with his feet and pulled himself up on his hands, which had previously grabbed the roof of the car. Thus, Spider was already on the roof of the jeep and grinned at the annoyed muttering of Agent Phillips.  
"I told you there would be problems with the Stark baby!"  
Peter joined the dance of people, repeating simple movements, while the door slammed from the side of Agent Norington and, apparently, she also went out onto the road.  
'Ooh woo, I'm a rebel just for kicks, now  
I been feeling it since 1966, now  
Might be over now, but I feel it still' the song sounded from the speakers. The teenager caught a hat that was suitable for the image, which was thrown to him by a passenger from a nearby car and, making a spectacular somersault, put it on his head. That's the way he was - friendly neighbor Spider-Man. Even if not in his hometown, helping people, even as simple as improving their mood, was his desire, coming from the depths of his soul. The fact that he helped someone, even with some trifle, always lifted his spirits.  
When the song ended, Pete jumped to the ground with a big smile and handed the hat to its owner through the open window.  
"Well done, boy! Have you ever considered going to the casting for some talent show?"  
"Thanks sir." he smiled again, scratching the back of his head nervously. "I'm not up to it yet, but if my career plans do not come true, then I will think about it."  
Stark Jr. got back into the car, fortunately, Agent Phillips had already unlocked the doors. The man turned and looked at him in annoyance, reminding him of Happy, who was always unhappy with his behavior. The spider smiled insolently at him and tossed the snack from the open pack into his mouth. Nothing will stop him from showing the qualities of Spider-Man when he feels that people will be better off if he does.  
"Peter, that was so awesome!" with a smile, Agent Norington told him, who also returned to her passenger seat. "I made a video. Can I upload it to my private YouTube channel?"  
The spider opened his mouth to agree, because there is nothing of the sort, but the woman saw fit to explain.  
"Only my husband and daughter have access to the channel. She is 8. Somehow, during one of the special operations, I was injured and she was very scared, arranged tantrums so that I would not go to work afterwards, so now if I leave for work and I will be away from home for several days, I always try to shoot some funny videos for her so that she can see that everything is fine with me. "  
"Sure." smiled Spider-Man and thought of his father. The work of Iron Man is probably as dangerous as that of an agent of the special services, it can even be much more dangerous. If earlier, before they met, while watching live broadcasts on TV about his hero, he was insanely worried, then he simply could not imagine what would happen now.  
Peter took the phone in hand and saw there a message from his father that after the death of Agent Treston, the agent in charge of his case had been changed and it took time for him to go into all the details. That he is putting pressure on the FBI as best he can, but they say, Pete himself must understand that with a lot of pressure, work efficiency can be reduced.  
The teenager sighed and wrote, posted a response.  
«I see, I'm just worried that SM won't be in town for a long time.»  
Indeed, one of his fears, which he admitted to himself, was that people would be disappointed in him, as in a local hero, and stop believing in him. If Spider-Man will not be seen on the streets of Queens for a long time, then his neighbors may well think that he has already scored on them.  
"I see you're feeling better. Head, shoulder pain?" inquired Agent Phillips, turning back to the teenager.  
“It's okay, thank you.” Stark Jr. smiled. To be honest, he had already forgotten about his injuries, apparently overnight everything healed and in the morning he woke up without any reminder of them.  
«Do not worry, if questions start, I will post on my official Twitter account that we are all human and that the Spider has family affairs, he will not be for some time and it is not known how long. People love you, they will understand.»  
«I hope.» The spider sighed again. “Dad, listen, can I be on your missions when I get back? I promise I won't stick my head out. Just for your peace of mind and safety net. I can sit somewhere on the roof and just watch.»  
«This is very dangerous, Peter. We deliberately distinguished between your level of activity and the level of activity of the Avengers. Why are you at all?»  
«But I will not do anything without your direct instructions. That's right, it's very dangerous! I'm just very worried. I'd rather be on the spot and, if necessary, help at least with something than sitting in front of the TV and wondering whether you'll come back or not!»  
«Baby, I can take care of myself. I have a super armored suit after all. I need you at home to take care of your mom for what, you know? Besides you, I can only trust Rhodey in this, but if not on government missions, then he is with me. So only you remain.»  
«I understand.» Sighing again, Spider sent a message. He did not even think about this side of the question. If he, the child of these people, was kidnapped at such a young age, then how many attempts on the lives of the adults themselves were perfect and still possible, Spider-Man simply could not imagine. Of course, in this case, it is worth considering the father's nanotechnological suit with the mother's usual office look. Probably, there is always security somewhere with her and Happy, if Tony is not in the city, but if you compare ordinary people with a teenager with supernormal abilities, then the choice is obvious.  
Having received an emoticon in the form of a thumbs up in response, Peter decided to kill the time with the remaining homework, especially since they had already begun to slowly move forward, apparently the cork was dissolving. Of course, some people still danced to a couple of trendy songs, but he had already decided not to join them, the desire had already disappeared.

***

Pete woke up at about eleven in the morning and, opening his eyes, stared for a long time at the ceiling of the room in which he was. They arrived at their destination, contrary to the agents' expectations, late at night, he was dozing in the back seat, so when he was pushed and taken into the house, the teenager did not really think about where he was and whether this was the end of the trip. Stark Jr. only muttered his thanks, and stripping off his shoes, sweatshirt and jeans, he climbed into the bed, which was pointed out to him. So now I had to figure out what's what here at all. He sat up on the bed and looked around. The room was small, even smaller than his room in May's apartment. There was a bed against the wall with a bedside table and a night light. In parallel, there was a wardrobe with an armchair, on which lay a set of clean towels. Perpendicularly there was an ordinary table with a chair, and in front of it was a door, apparently to the bathroom.  
The spider got up and went to the window, drew back the curtain and looked out into the street. All he saw was an empty dead road and a field of wheat. Class, it was unknown where and it seems far from civilization. Yes, he is more likely here not that he will make a decision about his future life, but will become stupid, just looking around. The spider would never have thought he was such a city boy.  
Okay, what to do with himself here he still had to come up with, but while a shower and acquaintance with other inhabitants of the house, did not leave him alone here, right his word. His backpack and bag of things were near the chair, so grabbing clean clothes and towels, Spider-Man went to the bathroom. After some time, long enough to tidy himself up after the exhausting trip, he returned to the room and threw the dirty clothes into the chair, and hung a roll towel on the back of the chair. After making the bed, Peter checked the charging on his phone, once again mentally sang praises to Stark Industries technology, and texted his father that he seemed to be already there and that everything was in order. After Pete left the room, realizing that along the way, the pillow remained in the FBI's working car, and began to go down the stairs, looking around the house. He looked quite residential, from below came the sounds of a working TV, some noise and delicious smells from the kitchen.  
Immediately to the left of the stairs was the living room, where a little girl was playing with dolls on the floor. He decided not to distract her, you never know how a child would react to a stranger, and it is unlikely that she would have told him the information that interested him. He definitely needed some kind of adult, because Stark Jr. really didn’t think that there would be any more children where he was taken. Is this some kind of analogue of a foster family? No really. He doesn't need that. He has his own family. If you think about it, then as an alternative to stay in the Complex all the time. There is at least a laboratory there.  
On the right, in the living room, an arch was discovered, passing through which he found a small kitchen. There was another 12-year-old girl sitting at the kitchen counter, and some woman was making pancakes, It seems.  
"Em... Good morning." awkwardly the teenager greeted, carefully studying the strangers, trying to determine whether they were relatives or not.  
“Hi Peter, are you hungry? Sit down." the woman smiled at him and pointed to the place next to the girl, who only snorted, sticking into her phone.  
"Where are Agents Norington and Phillips?" asked Spider-Man, sitting down on the indicated chair. For the time being, he decided to ignore the ill will of his neighbor, he met such things too often in life, so, as usual, he chose his favorite tactics of behavior in such cases.  
“They left immediately yesterday. But don't worry, you are safe here. I have experience as a special agent. " the woman assured him and placed a plate of pancakes in front of him. "Enjoy your meal. Coffee?"  
“Thank you, you can have juice or just water. My body reacts badly to coffee. " Spider smiled slightly as he started eating. He was not worried about his own safety, but no one gave him any instructions on what to do here at all, so the awkwardness did not go away ...  
"Sure. My name is Willa, by the way. I don't think you remember this at night. " the woman winked at him, pouring him a glass of juice. “This is my daughter Carly, and in Lexi's living room, you probably saw her. I put you in my son's room. He lives with his father and usually his visits are very unexpected. So if he decides to come back while you're still here, we'll figure out something to accommodate you. "  
"Yeah, sorry." Smiling awkwardly, Spider-Man scratched the back of his head. "Nice to meet you."  
"Nothing wrong. By the way, you are not far from Madison. It's in South Dakota. Basically, there are farms everywhere and it may seem that it is rather deserted, but it is always so in rural areas: you need to walk decently between at least some infrastructure objects and the houses of neighbors. "  
Peter ate, nodding along the way, indicating that he understood everything.  
After breakfast, Willa sent him and Carly on a long sightseeing tour of the area. It was clear from the girl that she was not at all eager to show him local attractions, since when they walked silently along the side of the road for about 15 minutes (during this time, not a single car had passed along it!), She pointed to the fields around and dryly reported that these are their local fields. In the end, Pete got tired of it. He was still a sociable boy (in his comfortable company) and was not going to start a forced cohabitation in enmity. Moreover, next to this girl, Stark Jr. felt much more mature mentally, so he decided to take the first step.  
“Look Carly, I don't know what your problem is. Than you did not like me at first sight, but I do not pretend to be some kind of increased attention to myself or something like that. I don’t know what’s in your head and what is the reason for your attitude, but you don’t owe me anything. I can walk myself. And you, I don’t know, sit in a cafe with friends or something else, and then we’ll go back together so that your mother doesn’t have any questions about the fact that you left me alone, no one knows where. After all, I have a GPS in my phone. "  
The interlocutor, if you can call her that, was silent for a while, gloomily looking at her feet, banging pebbles that fell under her feet.  
“Mom is a child psychologist, works for the FBI. You have no idea how many children, who, according to the FBI, need unobtrusive help, have passed through our house! Do you think it's okay to share your mom's attention with someone unknown? She wants to help them all so much that sometimes she simply does not have time to pay attention to her own children. I love her and do not blame her for such noble spiritual impulses, but ... Lexi has been with us for two years. Mom never shared with me what she had to endure, but she still cannot get up, she is afraid to go out and is afraid of strangers. Her parents moved here and live next door. ”Carly nodded her head towards the small farm they were approaching. “But Lexi clings to Mom and doesn't recognize them. Sometimes I want to move in with my brother and father. They could not share the attention of mom with strangers, so it came to a divorce and the brother decided to live with dad. "  
"This is terrible." the teenager sighed sympathetically. “Your mom does a good job and even if it is sometimes very difficult, but I think she appreciates that she has such an understanding daughter. You are probably her only support. " The spider knew what he was talking about. After all, he and May were alone until recently, and he knew that she refused dating to those men who showed attention to her when she found out that they did not like children or somehow with prejudice towards them. relate. She didn't want her nephew to feel uncomfortable. He really appreciated it. So the life situation of this family, in which he fell, was clear to him: unfortunately, there are not so many men in the world who love their soul mate so much that they accept her children or even put up with the constant presence of strangers in the house. “About Lexi… I can't even imagine what could have traumatized a child so that in two years she would not become more social. I really sympathize with her parents. But it's good that they did not leave her to fend for themselves and are trying to establish contact. I'm sure she will get better over time. In any case, as I understand it, your other children won't stay long with you, so your mother is really a professional in her field. " Spider will smile slightly, thinking about that little girl who was afraid to leave the four walls. She could well consider Will as her mother, and then, when she is old enough to better perceive the world around her, she will have to find out the truth. Surely, she will not forgive her real parents, although there will be no partly their fault in all this. No matter how he himself would have forgiven Mr. Stark if it turned out that all this time he knew about their relationship and did not say anything for any reason, even if it was banal as a fear of rejection of the truth.  
“Yeah ... And why are you here? Sorry if I'm not meddling in my own business, but you don't seem to be looking at something seriously injured so that you need the help of a psychologist. Trust me, I have seen many cases of different psychological trauma. But, you know, at the same time I understand that deep in our hearts we can hide as teenagers. If you don't want, don't answer. " it seems Carly began to thaw gradually and looked curiously at her new acquaintance. Probably, she just needed to speak out to someone not from her environment.  
“Well, since your mother doesn’t tell you the nuances of the case of every child that you have, I think that I shouldn’t say anything either. Moreover, as far as I know, my case is classified. Yes, I will not deny that a crime was committed, the target of which was me, but it was a very long time ago and I do not remember anything. Apparently, my brain protects me from traumatic memories. So I'm fine and initially we had a different route altogether, then we had to change it. In general, I want to assure you that I will not have sessions with your mother, I do not need help, I will not take her time, so that she can spend it more with you. "  
“You know, I know commonplace things from the profession of a psychologist, especially since we have a very large library with books about psychologists in the public domain. So what I want to say is that your brain has blocked some memories - not good. Now that you know about this fact, they can manifest themselves in any way at any moment, and then it will be very difficult to deal with all this. So maybe you should talk to your mom and work through all this. " the girl seriously advised him.  
"I'll think about it. Actually, I hope I won't stay here for long. With my parents, I think there will be no problems, so it all depends on how quickly the FBI investigation progresses. What are your teenagers doing here in order not to die of boredom? "  
"Racing in parent's pickup trucks, drinking cheap beer in someone's barn, and helping with the housework and in the fields." Carly shrugged.  
"Sounds ... not very suitable for me." Spider-Man grimaced slightly.  
Carly giggled.  
“Just try it sometime. Here you will agree to anything, just to really not die of boredom. "  
So, chatting more carelessly, they reached one of the main streets of the town. On the other side, a trio of girls, plus or minus Peter's age, were walking towards them.  
“Hey Vance, is that your next nutty foster? You don't often bring them out to people! Maybe you should attach a leash so that you don't rush at someone for an hour? " one of them shouted as they almost drew level. Is that a female version of The Flash? Pete snorted. If he was ready to endure that, then this will not work here. Carly has no protection at all from such people, because her older brother rarely comes here, but there are people who should be omitted only once and then they will lose all their bravado.  
“Are you trying to flirt like that? The waitress from the cafe who twisted the ice cream on me and began to wipe it off my jeans did better. If put someone on a leash, it's only you. To the radiator or to the head of the bed - it only depends on your behavior, baby." he winked at the girl, opening the door of the cafe, near which he and Carly were. Letting the girl go ahead, he followed her into the room. It seems to be an involuntary tactic that the teenager chose for himself in the form - in any incomprehensible situation, behave as Tony Stark would behave - while still in the Queens police station. Although Tony himself told him not to do this, but that in fact related to his activities Spidey, and not his teenage life. In fact, perhaps something from his father, in addition to intellect, manifested itself in him as well, remember only that case with Delmar, when for his commentary-a joke about the owner's daughter he almost had to pay extra for a sandwich.  
She and Carly took a table and ordered a couple of milkshakes.  
"You shouldn't bother with her." sighed the girl.  
“You should learn to stand up for yourself. It is low to insult people who have some kind of deviation. I understand that this is not the first time she and her company cling to you? You don't have to put up with this. Such people are simply looking for personalities weaker than themselves. I myself go through similar things in my school. Only I pretend that I can't fight back so that the bully doesn't switch to someone who can't withstand the pressure. "  
“This is very noble of you, Peter. But on the other hand, this is a school of life and if you help someone avoid important lessons, in the future this person will hardly be tempered for such or worse situations. I don't care what Annette says. I just don't pay attention. But her father is the local sheriff. So you never know how she can twist a similar situation and bring charges. "  
“And your mom is an FBI agent. I'm not talking about my father yet. I don't want to be like Draco Malfoy. So what? Here you need to solve such issues yourself, and not rely on adults. At least in her and mine. You can still tell your mom corny that you are worried about this behavior. It is all the more wrong to pour out all your negativity on children, not even on the same age! "  
"In some ways, you're right." agreed Carly, proceeding to drink her milkshake, which had just been brought to them. “But I don’t want this to turn into a full-fledged war. Once the boys from my school arranged it for our history teacher. It didn't end well for them. "  
“We’ll come up with something to put an end to this once and for all. But, to be honest, something tells me that it already happened today. " Stark Jr. smiled encouragingly at her and began to drink his cocktail too, looking around the cafe and its visitors. His interlocutor began to briefly quietly introduce each of them to him.  
“Speaking of Draco Malfoy. What faculty are you? "  
“I convince everyone that I am Gryffindor,” he smiled and tapped his fist on his chest, “but everyone who knows me convinces me that I am Hufflepuff. And you?".  
“You can be half that and half that. Or you can have the qualities of all faculties together. My brother says I'm Slytherin and Ravenclaw. "  
“The main qualities are cunning and intelligence. And why don't you use them in order to neutralize, so to speak, your ill-wishers? " Still smiling, Spider asked.  
"I just needed a brave kind person who would push me to use these qualities." Carly smiled back at him and they laughed.  
After a coffee shop, they surveyed the rest of the area and returned to the Vance family home.  
"What did you do to break that block of ice that bound my daughter's beautiful soul?" Willa asked jokingly when she saw that Carly was now much more welcoming to their temporary guest than she had been before their walk.  
The girl rolled her eyes and went up the stairs.  
"Just talked to her." Spider shrugged.  
"Carly, don't go far, we'll have lunch now!" Willa yelled at her and looked at the teenager again. "You're a good boy, Peter."  
He smiled a little awkwardly - as always, he didn't know how to respond to a compliment. He didn't do anything like that, he just found a common language, with good people - it was not difficult for him.  
"Where can I wash my hands?"  
The woman pointed out to him the bathroom on the ground floor and said that she was waiting for him and Carly in the kitchen, since she and Lexi had already eaten. After washing his hands, Spider-Man looked into the living room and did not find the little girl there. With a shrug, he proceeded to the kitchen. Carly wasn't there yet.  
“Thank you for receiving me, Miss Vance. There will be no problem with me. "  
“No problem, honey. You can just Willa. " the woman smiled at him as she began to serve him food. "Would you like to chat with me after dinner?" she offered kindly.  
Peter had a strong urge to bristle because he knew exactly what she was offering. But he didn't let his emotions take over and tried to answer as politely as possible.  
“Carly told me about your profession, Miss Vance. This is very commendable, but I don't need any psychological help. I'm fine. The reason why I'm here - psychologically I can figure it out myself. Better spend this time with Carly. She really needs your attention. Did you even know that this Annette or how she mocks her there? Perhaps she would not have called it just such a mockery, but words can sometimes hurt much more painful than some physical action. "  
The woman, apparently, wanted to answer something, but her daughter just entered the kitchen, so what she wanted to say - Pete was not destined to hear. After a quick meal in a slightly tense atmosphere and thanking Willa for lunch, he got up and carried the dishes to the sink with the intention of washing them.  
“Leave it. I'll wash it myself. "  
"Well thank you." The teenager shrugged his shoulders and headed out of the kitchen. "I'll walk, I remember the road." he said and hastened to leave the house. On the one hand, the Spider gave a place for the conversation of mother and daughter so much needed by both of them, and on the other hand, he really felt the need to ventilate. Why he was so hooked that everyone around told him to talk to a specialist he did not know.  
Moving away from the road, Spider began to walk quickly across the width of the field closest to the house. Walking a decent distance from the house, he took out his phone and opened his contact list. For a moment, his finger came back to May's contact, but after a split second, Spider-Man began to scroll further. And when he got to Ned's contact, he dialed his number. New York was only an hour more than here in South Dakota.  
“Yo dude, haven't heard from you for a long time! Why are you not at school? What's happening? Where are you? MJ said that you have gone somewhere! Are you all right? " Leeds immediately pounced on him with questions as soon as he answered the phone.  
Peter couldn't help but smile as he listened to his friend's chatter. How he missed him already!  
“I can't tell you anything definite, buddy. But I'm relatively fine. I don't know when I'll be back. Hope to be in time for the Decathlon competition, MJ has a lot of faith in me, I think. Or maybe he just can't stand the Flash. "  
“Wait, wait, what's this related to your hobby? Something like it was over a year ago?? " exclaimed Ned. Of course he thought of some super cool mission that Spider-Man was asked to take part in. Eh, if it really were like this ...  
“Uh… no, Ned, this has nothing to do with my hobby… photography, there is no such project as taking pictures for an exhibition as it was then. But if you think about it, then there is something to shoot. Maybe I'll come up with a concept and take a couple of cool shots. " Pete hoped that his friend would understand that he was saying this because of his fears that even in such a remote place someone might listen to their conversation (of course he had no doubts about Stark Industries technology, but Ned does not have such a fancy phone, -or. It never hurts to play it safe, even if he is a liar at the most).  
“Got you, dude. It's good that you got in touch. We were very worried! Do not do that anymore!"  
"If it's in my power, I promise." the teenager smiled slightly. "You better tell me everything I missed!"  
"Oooh, there was such a thing ..."  
After chatting with his best friend for a decent amount of time, Stark Jr. said goodbye and, with a much better mood than he had come, headed in the opposite direction.  
Walking, he was distracted by the phone, as he received a message notification. The SMS was from an unknown number.  
«Hi Peter! Sorry for not contacting you earlier! I thought you had no connection, as the FBI usually restricts the people it takes under its protection, but your father has his own ways ... I just found out your number. How did you settle down? Everything is good? P.S. Pepper. »  
Yes, they were still far from the signature "mom" in the end, but Spidey suddenly felt a keen desire that such a signature was here now. Probably, all his life he wanted to see the signature "mom" in a caring SMS, eat a lovingly cooked breakfast, grab a carefully collected snack on a trip, hear a kind misstep before some exam or competition, and so on and so forth and so on. Of course, he had May, but she never claimed the title of his mother, always remained at a certain distance - a tough aunt.  
Sighing, Spider kept the contact by name and wrote a reply.  
«It's okay, I know that you are very busy. I'm fine, nice people here, they want to help. How was the trip?» In fact, he was already a little tired of constantly repeating to everyone in all sorts of ways that everything is fine, but ... it doesn't get anywhere. And he will continue to do so so as not to bother anyone. Such is his nature.


	5. Interesting meeting

Pepper briefly talked about her trip, said that she had brought him souvenirs and promised that somehow they would visit this country together as an educational trip or whatever he wants. Actually, the correspondence ended there. They were strangers to each other, they simply did not have common topics of conversation. Do not linger over this whole situation endlessly. Of course he wanted to talk more, but ... about what? And Pepper, for sure, was busy somewhere in one of the posh offices of Stark Industries, he did not want to interfere with her work. He suddenly had a sharp feeling that they were trying unsuccessfully to play with the family.  
Peter sighed and pocketed his phone as he continued on his way to the Vance house. In their living room, he again found Lexi, busy with drawing, and squatted down beside her.  
“Hi Lexi. I'm Peter. I'll live with you, Carly and Willa for a while. " the teenager spoke friendly.  
The girl didn't seem to even notice his presence. He would not say that she is directly too focused on her occupation. Well, at least I was not afraid of him, and that's good. Perhaps, in addition to some mental disorders, she still has some kind of congenital disease ... But then more qualified specialists would be needed than an ordinary child psychologist ... So Pete wanted to be inclined to the conclusion that the girl was simply not interested in him and that was all.  
He picked up one of the fallen graphic crayons from the floor and placed it in a pile with the others on the coffee table.  
"Thanks." Lexi mumbled so softly that if Pete hadn't been able to hear it, he wouldn't have heard it. He considered this a good sign, in the end, maybe the child is shy, because they actually saw each other for the first time.  
Stark Jr. sat down beside her on the sofa and peered over her shoulder at her drawing. He could understand little there, but it was clear to him even without special education that the girl's affairs were not going very well. The main part of the drawing was occupied by a shapeless black circle.  
"Is this a black hole?" Spider optimistically suggested, he was not sure at what age children would learn about this, but it seems that he already knew a lot about space at the age of 6. But it can also depend on the individual curiosity of each child.  
"No. This is the basement. " the girl replied serenely and the Spider recoiled from her. Eyes widening with horror, he looked at the profile of her face and realized that it was normal for her. Some of her problems were becoming clear, but he didn't want to know more. He didn't want to ask what was in the basement. He will not help her in any way, and this knowledge will not bring him any good.  
Spider-Man swallowed and looked away from Lexi. He wanted to get out of here, but the reluctance to leave the girl alone outweighed. He could no longer look at the drawing, so he folded his hands into the castle and began to examine the living room. Several photographs were found on the mantelpiece: Willa with a man, apparently her ex-husband, a boy about 6 years older than Carly, and Carly herself; Will with the children; Will with her husband; Carly and her brother and Carly and her father - they all looked happy in these photos. But how did this picture differ from reality ...  
"Oh Peter, are you back already?" a woman who entered the drawing-room turned kindly to him. Apparently, she did not hold a grudge against him for his words, or she quickly retreated. He was instantly relieved and got up from the couch.  
“Yeah. You won't find nature and such clean air even in Central Park in New York. " Peter smiled slightly.  
"Then you can come to visit." Willa smiled at him too. “I washed your clothes. Then I'll bring it to your room. "  
"Thanks. I'll go do my homework. "  
He took the opportunity to leave and indeed went up to the room assigned for him, took out a laptop, textbooks and a notebook with a pencil. Sitting down at his desk and turning on his laptop, Pete downloaded his mail and began completing and submitting his homework. He did all this until Carly looked into his room and said that Will was calling him to dinner. So he folded everything up and exited all the tabs in the browser, turned off the laptop and went downstairs.  
After dinner, Carly suggested that he go and meet the rest of the children in the area, who gathered for something almost every evening, but Stark Jr. refused, citing fatigue. Sleeping in the car was really uncomfortable at midnight, but he really just didn't want to go anywhere.  
Back in the room, the teenager plopped down on the bed and began to stick to the phone: read news, check Twitter trends, like and comment on posts on Instagram, correspond in school chats. If you think about it, for the first time in the last couple of days he was alone with his thoughts, but his head was ... empty. The spider was just trying hard to be distracted, and not start on the wall with a strip to mark the first day of his stay here, because after that, when he crossed out the first four stripes, he was sure that he would feel sick.

***

He had been with the Vance for four days and was already seriously wondering if the FBI had made him worse by sending him here? Spider-Man cannot help in any specific aspects and this ate him from the inside. It was just that last night was very difficult for him. He woke up thirsty and went down to the kitchen to drink water, and on the way noticed the TV turned on in the living room. Peter thought that maybe Carly was watching a movie tonight and fell asleep on the couch, but Lexi was shivering behind the couch. She hugged her knees and swayed back and forth, flinching from each scream and sound of gunshots. Naturally, at this hour in the morning, video materials not intended for children were shown on TV, like a tough action movie, for example. What was Lexi doing here?  
Pete sighed and sat down on the floor beside the girl, not risking touching her.  
“Hey Lexi, it's me Peter. How about we turn off the TV and go put you to bed? What do you think about that?"  
"Scary ..." the girl whispered softly.  
“I know it's scary, Lexie, but it's just a TV. During the day you watch cartoons, and at night they show bad films. I'll turn it off and we'll go to your room, okay? " he began to rise slowly to look for the remote control on the sofa, but the girl stopped him in a panicky voice.  
"No! Then it will be dark! "  
The teenager sighed, realizing her dilemma: the sounds coming from the TV scared her, as did the darkness if the TV was turned off.  
“Let’s close your eyes, I’ll take you in my arms and hold you tight until we’re in your room, okay?”  
"Okay ..." the girl agreed in a trembling voice. The spider lifted her into his arms, she immediately wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face in his shoulder. He grabbed her more comfortably and walked around the sofa, turned off the TV and left the living room. Stark Jr. climbed to the top rather quickly and, guessing the outlines of objects in Lexi's room, turned on the night light. Immediately, somewhere behind him, there was a rustle and a large shadow was reflected on the light wall. What the fuck is going on here? His participation in a live thriller in the form of transporting a person by FBI agents slowly turned into a horror genre.  
He instantly turned around and activated a web shooter. The spider saw a tail flickering under the chest of drawers. It was just a mouse. Apparently she came running from a neighboring field.  
"You need to get a cat." Spider-Man chuckled nervously, trying to push the girl onto her bed, but she didn't want to disengage her arms.  
“I won't be able to sleep. Do not leave me please."  
"Good good." he sighed, looking around the room. There was no book in sight to read Lexi. But he paid attention to the window. As far as he knew, Lexi and Carly's rooms were next to each other, and their windows looked out onto the roof and one of the fields.  
“I bet you've never seen the stars live, have you? Let's get out on the roof and take a look at them. How do you like this idea? It's very peaceful for me. "  
"I don't leave the house."  
“So we will not go out. If you want, then just sit on the windowsill. Either way, I'll hold you tight, I promise. And the light from the room pours enough not to be afraid to be outside next to the window. What do you say?"  
"If you say so ... then let's try." the girl agreed uncertainly.  
Peter smiled reassuringly, even though she didn't see it, and walked over to the window. Pulling back the curtains and lifting the sash, he bent down and hugging the child to him, climbed onto the sloping roof. The teenager sat down carefully. near the window and straightened his legs.  
“Look how beautiful it is, Lexi. Will you sit on the windowsill? "  
The girl pulled away from his shoulder and clenched her hands tighter, carefully looked around and shook her head.  
Pete made her more comfortable on his legs and, noticing that she was fascinated by looking at the sky, began to quietly point her to those constellations that he knew. In order to enjoy such beauty, he himself usually climbed the highest skyscrapers of the city, but with the absence of clouds he was not always lucky.  
"Very beautiful."  
"And not at all scary, right?"  
"Uh-huh ... They are so bright and there are so many of them ... I think they are very kind."  
"Although we can't reach the stars now, you know, there are people among people who can be called both bright and kind ..."  
"How ma ... Willa, huh?"  
“Yes, like Will. What do you think of your neighbors? I think they are good people. Just one of those who surround with kindness, love, understanding and care. "  
“They seem to be cute. I'm not afraid of them. " Lexi replied with a shrug.  
Stark Jr. sighed again. Probably this is not a fear of her own parents, even though she did not perceive them as such, was already a success for her. He already knew them, they came in the other day. The man and the woman looked very exhausted, probably the same way as his parents looked all these years behind closed doors. The spider immediately left the house and called his father, so lying on the grass near the field a few tens of meters from the house, he talked to Tony and he immediately felt better. It turns out that Iron Man is now actively involved in the revision of the Accords, as he wanted the secret identity of his son to remain safe and underage children with supernormal abilities were not forced to anything, and also wanted to edit some points that caused particular resistance from the former Avengers. They actively discussed this for several hours, after the end of the conversation Spider even felt himself qualified in basic legal terms to be able to immediately find a background in some contracts. In fact, he wasn't sure what he thought of the Accords. On the one hand, when you are trying to help people, the situation can change quickly and you don’t have time to calculate the risks, you are acting in the most optimal way to save someone’s life. On the other hand, during the fights of superheroes and supervillains, there is really a lot of destruction and collateral damage. As far as he knew, when arresting, the police must take into account the collateral damage and the monthly maintenance of one police department costs the state 50 thousand dollars, how much money is spent on covering the consequences of large-scale battles like 2012? The amendments to the Agreements from the government, which were now under consideration, assumed that the heroes would not have secret personalities and they would have to stand trial after each of their tricks and answer for all the harm that they caused when the criminals were eliminated. If these amendments are adopted, then his activities of Spider-Man will become illegal, he will have to reveal his identity and discuss with a bunch of people whether he could send the plane into the water, and not to Coney Island during the battle with the Vulture. Could not. He was barely able to adjust it to a deserted beach, not to high-rise buildings. And the fact that he would have to deal with all this ... Peter felt that he was not ready to do it. He was very grateful to his father that he began to act proactively. But if he has to sign the edited Agreements, which did not imply the disclosure of his identity and responsibility where he can see things around him, and Tony tells him that he needs to put his signature, then he will do it without any problems. By the way, it's worth coming up with a signature for Spider-Man. It is unlikely that the government will arrange a piece of the web ... It cannot be digitized.  
Lexi fell asleep in his arms, Pete carefully returned to the room, put the girl to bed and covered her with a blanket. Closing the window, he drew the curtains, and leaving the night light on, he left the room. The teenager did not go to drink water. Returning to his room, he tossed and turned from side to side for a long time and could not sleep, so that in the morning he felt overwhelmed.  
After washing, Stark Jr. went downstairs, where breakfast was already served in the kitchen. At the table, in addition to finishing Carly and Willa, Lexi was also sitting, cheerfully swinging her legs and smiling at him friendly. He squeezed out a smile, Spider was really glad that the girl seemed to feel a little better, because, who knows, maybe they took their first steps that night in order to overcome one of her deep fears.  
After greeting him, he took the seat that had been reserved for him and began poking dejectedly at his breakfast.  
"After breakfast I will go to the store to restock and buy some other household goods." Willa reported.  
"May I come with you?" the Spider caught himself at once. He wanted to see something else, in addition to four walls and fields around during these couple of days, all the more it began to seem to him that now Lexi would cling to him the same way as Carly said she did to Willa, and he wanted to avoid it. He was not a psychological support for children and did not want to harm the child's broken psyche. Moreover, if the girl becomes attached to him, then it will be very difficult for her when he leaves.  
"Sure. Help me look after the cat, Lexi wanted a cat. " the woman smiled.  
Spider-Man tried to give his face a neutral expression and nodded, began to stuff food into himself. Taking a sip of juice and still chewing, he washed the dishes and hurried out into the street where Willa's Toyota Hilux was parked. Climbing into the front seat, Peter saw Lexi watching him at the window. With a wave of his hand, he turned his gaze to the field, each plant of which, it seems, had already been thoroughly studied.  
Willa soon got out and got into the car, started the engine and they drove in the opposite direction from the town center. Apparently, they were heading to some large store for wholesale purchases, and not the small one that was on the main street.  
"You're running." after some time on the way, a woman broke the calm silence.  
The teenager looked at her blankly.  
"This is normal. Run away from home, run away from someone, run away from your own thoughts and fears, run away from pain. When talking to someone, you know, it helps to share it, discuss it, and when a person realizes the reasons for their fears, they no longer seem so terrible. It's okay to be afraid of what is hurting or you know what will hurt you. The fact that you admit that you need to delve into yourself will not make you a sick person. Often people refuse to speak, but when they finally do it, then having understood everything, it really becomes much easier for them. " Willa stared at the road, as if to show that she was not pressuring her passenger at all. Only her words had the exact opposite effect. Was it a pause for a couple of days on purpose and she decided to provoke him to a conversation again? He said that he was fine and he didn't need it! Should psychologists be so intrusive at all? It seems like you can't help a person who doesn't want it. Or is she simply afraid that she will not have time to do anything for him before he leaves? Pete wanted to put on the headphones and ignore her. But he was not one of those grumpy teenagers that are often shown on TV. And he had no headphones with him. He decided that it would be easier for her to answer and the woman would lag behind. Stark Jr. did not think that he was being led in this way, he was not going to talk about anything specifically emotional with her.  
"What do you know about my situation?" calmly, without accusations of tone, asked Spider, looking at the road.  
“The fact that you were kidnapped from your real parents at the age of one year, from the age of 5 after the death of those people whom you considered your parents, you lived with your uncle and aunt. You were pretty well taken care of, you were fine, then your uncle, who turned out to be not your uncle, died before your eyes. "  
“And you want to talk about the years after the abduction and before my 5 years? I don't remember anything definite. If there are any confused memories, they don't tell me anything. Whether I felt bad or good, nothing. You will not apply the technique of hypnosis to me in order to forcefully return everything that was forgotten. "  
“We'll save that for later. Children can be aware of themselves and remember from the age of 8, maybe for someone it happens earlier, for someone it can even later - everything is individual. You may or may not remember all this. I want to focus on your life after 5 years. I think there are events there that are worth examining in detail. Judging by the police report they sent me, yours, as it turned out, was not an uncle, was shot to protect you. Don't you think this is a traumatic enough event to talk about? "  
“I spoke with a school psychologist. I've dealt with it. " The spider was honest. Another reason for him to become Spider-Man was to prevent this from happening to Ben. So he really didn't have a guilt complex or a survivor. “No matter how good he seemed to me, my dad made strong arguments and made me think about his possible involvement in what happened. If he is in some way involved, then he does not deserve my grief for him. "  
“It's okay if you only know the good side of a person, and then you get to know the other, and your perception changes. But don't be so categorical. Even if he did something bad, it does not diminish all the good that he did for you too. He took good care of you, right? "  
“I am ready to find out his reasons, if this is really true. And then it's something to decide for yourself. But if his kind attitude was purely for selfish purposes, then ... "Spider-Man sighed in irritation and clenched his hand into a fist, knocked it on the torpedo. He was not angry enough not to control his strength, but he could not find words. He just felt a kind of stupid rage.  
“It's okay to be angry with everyone and everything in your situation. Your life has turned upside down. It’s strange that you still haven’t thrown out the emotions that overwhelm you. You don't need to accumulate negativity in yourself. You can shout, beat my car if it becomes easier for you. " the woman smiled, apparently pleased that she finally managed to break through the teenager at least some emotion.  
"What kind of help is it on your part to say that what I feel is normal ?!" Peter asked, still irritated. Indeed, what is the use of this? Does she think it helps?  
“And it's okay for a person who sticks a stick in your soul and tries to pull emotions out, Peter. This is all to ensure that you understand that you have every right to demonstrate your feelings. You were treated, to put it mildly, unfairly. You can at least shout about it to the whole world. "  
"And what will change from this?" he snorted.  
"You will feel better."  
Pete didn't say anything to her, in truth, he didn't feel the need to splash anything. The outburst of anger was only fleeting. Probably, if he didn’t know Mr. Stark before, then he would have worried a little more about what their relationship would be, and how much about how to hide his secret identity from him.  
They drove up to a large department store, where, as the teenager realized, was selling everything that the farmers might need: food, animal feed, household goods, spare parts for equipment and much more. When Willa parked, Stark Jr. got out of the car and, taking a cart on wheels, pushing it in front of him, entered the building.  
He waited for the woman and began to follow her through the store, examining everything around.  
“Willa, hello! How do you? How are the girls? " a young woman in one of the aisles greeted Miss Vance with a friendly smile.  
“Hi, we're fine, Lexi wanted a cat, can you imagine? Here we come to buy. This is Peter, by the way. He will live with us for a while. "  
"Hello." He smiled politely, looking closely at the girl who was standing next to this woman.  
"Yes, Leela told me that she and her friends saw Carly walking with your new guest." the woman answered neutrally and Spider exhaled. This Leela was then in the company of that Annette and he subconsciously worried if she told her mother about that situation. But, apparently, girls don't tell mothers about boorish boys. Thank God. He did not know how the situation would turn out if this woman brought up the topic. Well, judging by the fact that no local sheriff bothered the Vance house these days, Annette did not say anything to her father. Well, Carly was worried. And of course he had already managed to regret those words a hundred and fifty times, probably, no matter how impudent the girl was, he shouldn't have let her down like that. MJ would surely have rewarded him with a slap for that.  
“Yes, they went out recently. True, they never went anywhere else. Anyway. How about yours, Laura? Husband, sons? "  
"All's Well, thanks. Okay, we'll go. We still need to somehow drag a lot of things into the trunk ... "  
“Let Peter help you, huh? I can carry the cart myself, then you can find me in the store or wait by the car, okay? "  
"No problem." Spider shrugged and followed the woman and her daughter, who ignored him. Is this female solidarity or what?  
They had an old pickup truck, a bunch of heavy bags, and a few bales of hay. How the two of them were going to drag this other question up.  
"Let me go upstairs now, and you will serve me." Laura suggested, folding the back of the open trunk as Leela sat in the passenger seat.  
“Let me be better myself, I am stronger than I seem. Do not strain your back and arms. "  
He easily picked up a few bales of hay and put them in the open trunk. After that I did the same with the bags, and then I climbed in and adjusted everything. The woman replaced the cover.  
"Thanks a lot, Peter." she smiled at him and walked around the car and got behind the wheel.  
Spider-Man was about to return to the store when he heard her swear. Apparently, the car would not start.  
“I can see what you have with the car. I do not guarantee professionalism, but I understand a little. My ... one of my former guardians was an auto mechanic. " he said, although he actually got more knowledge from his father than from Ben. When they earned too much in the laboratories, Tony said that they needed to ventilate their brains and they went down to the garage and rummaged together in all kinds of rare cars that Stark owned.  
“Thank you, but this junk is long overdue for the dump. I will now call a tow truck and we will go on foot, we live nearby. But there is nothing for dinner, and the boys need to be fed. " sighed the woman, getting out of the car. She dialed the number and started talking on the phone.  
“Do you really want to help? Take the packages and carry them. " Leela said as she got out of the car too and opened the boot lid.  
Peter shrugged, he knew she wanted to prick him somehow, but it really wasn't difficult for him to help. He climbed into the trunk and took turns lowering the bags and bales onto the asphalt. Then he closed the trunk and took two bags in each hand, leaving the woman and her daughter with bales of hay. Although it was inconvenient to carry them, it was not as heavy as a week's supply of food for a large family.  
"So, the tow truck will only be in a couple of hours ... Peter, put the bags on." said Laura, ending the call.  
"I will help you bring everything home."  
"Thank you very much, give me two bags then."  
"It's not hard for me." the teenager reassured her again. After all, a couple of packets are nothing for his enhanced strength.  
"Okay, now I'll warn Willa then."  
Their conversation took place pretty quickly and they soon hit the road. Leela was mostly silent, and she and her mother chatted about this and that. Laura reminded him of May. He could already tell that she was just as kind and cool.  
The farm of this family was indeed not far away, but it was, as it were, far from the rest. Mother and daughter went to bring the bales into the barn, and he went to the porch, intending to leave the packages there.  
“Peter, don't go. Let me at least treat you to lemonade as a thank you. " Laura smiled at him as she left the barn.  
"It would be nice, thanks." the teenager happily turned around and walked back to the house after the woman. She took two packages and opened the door and entered the house. He, too, took the rest of the packages and followed after her.  
"Boys, we're home!" shouted Laura, heading forward down the corridor. After walking a couple of steps behind her, Pete immediately saw two boys in the living room: one was playing with the console, and the other much younger was running around with a black rag around the sofa and shouting something about the seizure of the ship, occasionally giggling.  
From that room, apparently the kitchen, where the woman was heading, wiping her hands with a towel, came ... Clint Barton. Stark Jr. fell out. Rather, the packages fell out of his hands. The man turned his cheek to his wife for a kiss, with a cheerful smile watching the expression on the face of an unfamiliar teenager.  
"Hello?"  
"Good afternoon, Mr. Burton, Hawkeye, sir!"  
Leela, passing by, snorted and rolled her eyes. He heard Laura giggle from the kitchen.  
"Where to sign?" one of the former Avengers asked with the same smile, taking a pen from the nightstand.  
"I am not a fan!" The spider turned red and squatted down, began to collect the scattered food, hoping that nothing was crumpled or crushed there. He squeaked inside. Of course Spider knew that Hawkeye was under house arrest, but didn't know that Hawkeye had a family. And he ended up in the same area where they lived ... To be honest, knowing that there was such a cool dude nearby, Spider-Man felt some kind of inspiration, perhaps, because in this house he again became fleetingly involved in a hero's life.  
"It's okay boy, don't be so nervous." Clint helped him put everything together. “I know it’s out of favor right now, so…” he shrugged, as if showing that a teenager might react negatively and that would be okay.  
"Give these unfortunate packages here already, have some lemonade." said Laura, returning from the kitchen, handing him a glass of soft drink and taking the bags. “Clint, this junk is broken again. I called a tow truck. It's good that Peter helped get it across, Leela and I couldn't have done it on our own. Let's go, let's sort out the groceries. ”She and her husband went with the bags to the kitchen, along the way telling him that she shot Peter with Will Vance in the store.  
Peter stood in the hallway drinking lemonade while looking around the house. His gaze rested on the TV screen.  
"Is that Call Out Duty?"  
"Yes." answered the boy, not distracted from the game. "Can you play?"  
"You ask." snorted Pete, leaving his empty glass on the nightstand, crossed the room and flopped down on the sofa. She and Ned on his console only played what games. Taking a free joystick, he waited for the boy to restart the game for two players and then the carnage began.  
"Boys, dinner." Laura suddenly appeared in front of the TV screen, blocking the view. They had to quickly complete another mission. It turned out that they played for several hours in a row, the older Bartons sometimes slipped plates of sliced fruit and other snacks to them, but the boys did not focus on this, fully focusing on the game.  
“You're a good player. Dad, I can always calculate. Cooper. " smiled the eldest son of Clint and Laura, holding out his hand.  
"Thanks, you too! These are the best hours of my life this week. Nice to meet you. Peter." he smiled back at him and shook the outstretched hand. Their handshake quickly turned into fists and they laughed.  
“Okay, I'll go. Delicious lemonade, Mrs. Barton, thanks! "  
Stark Jr. got up from the couch and stretched to flex his muscles.  
"Where to? Stay for dinner! "  
"I'm somehow uncomfortable ..."  
"Come on, guy, run to the table." Clint, who looked into the living room, intervened, and Spidey had to agree, after all, this is Hawkeye, after all!  
They sat and ate at the table, Leela and Cooper argued about something, Laura tried to make Nathaniel (as it turned out) eat more accurately, the Spider happily devoured food, looking at Clint from under his bangs. He seemed to be without a string. Spider-Man was a little afraid that he recognized him, but then in Germany they did not seem to be in close contact to compare any signs. But Barton was a spy, you never know.  
“So Peter, so what happened to you? Usually Miss Vance gets ... more severe cases. You are quite social and sociable. " Leela smiled caustically. Yes, yes, he had already realized that she didn't like it. Or it was some kind of revenge for Annette.  
To be honest, Peter felt like a part of the family during this dinner. It was both weird and damn good. Apparently the people themselves and the comfortable environment around them favored this. The same cannot be said about the heavy atmosphere in the Vance house.  
"Leela!" Mrs Barton's daughter chided.  
"Everything is good." soon, in the middle of the night, if woken up, he will say these words - so often Pete repeats them lately. Tired, right word. “We weren't supposed to go here initially, but an accident happened and the agents who were accompanied decided to change their destination just in case. In fact, I was kidnapped when I was a year old. I don't remember anything about it. Most of his life he lived with good people. At least that's what I thought. An investigation is underway if it turns out that they were involved ... ”he sighed, cutting off the phrase. What would happen then, the teenager did not know, he would not forgive anyone for sure. “I was sent here so that, without falling under the pressure of my parents, I could make a decision about what I want when I return. Well, to make sure that it is safe for me to return, and not that someone has been watching my life all this time and has allowed me to find my family for some purpose. "  
“Well, this is kind of crazy ... Have you talked to Willa? Although I am not her profile, but a couple of times she gave me a couple of practical advice. " wiping the edges of his lips with a tissue, Clint said.  
"In this crazy world, anything is possible." the teenager grinned gloomily, if he had revealed all the cards, then this version of the special services would have been more understandable for the Burton. "Little. What can you talk about when I don't know the facts. I want to know the truth about what happened and what happened to me. And then make some decisions. But I am sure of one thing, that neither now nor later will I need help. "  
"If you say so ... No one will force you, Peter." Laura smiled slightly at him and he smiled back at her.  
After dinner, Stark Jr. exchanged phone numbers with his new, one might say, friend, and having received a couple of containers of pie for Willa, Carly and Lexi, set off on the road back. He was offered to call Willa and ask her to pick him up, but he wanted to walk and comprehend today's door. The meeting with the Barton family was still out of his head. Leaving their house, he caught himself thinking that it seems that there will still not be so bad.


	6. Barton family

Since then, Peter has become a frequent visitor to the Bartons: he, Cooper and Clint made hacks in video games, played pirates and hide and seek with Nate, he helped Laura in the kitchen and in the yard, watched Leela teach archery, with Cooper he built tree house and helped him with his homework. Pete even slept at the Bartons' more often than at the Vance's! Will seemed to be fine with that. Apparently, she still could not forgive him for hinting that she was a good psychologist, but a useless mother. Of course May hadn't raised him that way. But what the hell is the difference ?! May, it turns out he has nobody! I never even called and did not write an SMS! The last time they spoke was the morning before he went to school on the day he was at the police station.  
He really enjoyed spending time with the Bartons, it was ... peaceful with them. While even his sleep at the Vance house was disturbing, for the most part, waking up there he remembered nothing, but there was an unpleasant feeling in his chest. Occasionally he dreamed of the bloody agent Treston, Shoherty, Gibbs, Norington, and Phillips on the day of the accident. At first they covered him behind the car, firing back at the criminals who got out of the truck, and then shouted at him to run ...  
He did not believe in the energy of houses, but on the Barton farm his sleep was always serene. So the teenager preferred to spend time there. He had no idea what would have happened if, in addition to Lexi, there were some other children living in the Vance house with their own problems. Looking at them, for such a sensitive person like Spider, it was easy to associate their problems with himself, so probably some of his traumatic memories would surely awaken and old wounds open. He didn't want to remember. Now everything was fine with him, and although he was terribly sorry for Lexi, if he also experienced something similar, then he did not know how to cope with it.  
Initially, in the early days of his active communication with the Bartons, he came to them only in the evenings, since Leela and Cooper went to school. His discomfort in Will's house only intensified. It even got to the point that Stark Jr. wrote an SMS to Pepper asking if he could dial it at that moment. She replied in the affirmative and after calling her, Spider whined for several minutes that he wanted to go home. He knew that her heart was breaking, that she could not do anything. But who else could he call? He wanted to be simply hugged by aunt May, as he used to do when he was very upset, such as the time after the situation with the ferry, his suit was taken away. But now he didn't have aunt May!  
“… Sorry, I… I… It's just… it's too much. I want to close my eyes and wake up in my room at the Complex, eat pizza tonight with my dad, work in the lab, return to town the next day, go to school, spend time with Ned, go out on patrol ... But that's not all! If it hadn't been for ... (he omitted the information about the Bartons, as he thought his mom would not be thrilled that he was hanging out with a criminal and his family) ... I would have gone crazy ... ”Spider-Man then suddenly fell silent, clearly aware that in his whole scheme, he just wanted to go back to his past life with May and Tony. Pepper was not in the diagram. And in theory it should be, since she is his own mother! He felt so disgusted with himself from just himself to the physical feeling of nausea. He muttered an apology again and quickly disconnected the call. Later, Peter wrote her a couple of apologies and assurances that, in general, everything is in order, it just sometimes rolls over sadness behind the house, that's all.  
Things got better when, after spending the night with Cooper, who was only a year younger than him, he began to stay with the Bartons, even as their older children went to school. Pete played with Nate, who, although he was younger than Lexi, was much easier with a cheerful child; doing his homework, sitting with his brought laptop in their living room. Nobody said anything about his sophisticated technique, they probably just did not know that this one was not yet on the market.  
"Pete, come with me." Clint called him, looking into the living room, where he was just studying. The teenager raised his head, saved the document and put the laptop on the coffee table, got up from the sofa.  
"Where are we going, Mr. Barton?" he asked curiously as he followed the man out of the living room.  
“While Laura is off with Nathaniel to town, I want to show you something.” he answered, opening the door under the stairs.  
Stark Jr. thought it was just a closet, but there was a staircase to the basement.  
"Close the door behind you." asked Hawkeye, turning on the light and starting to descend.  
The spider complied with the request and followed him. Inside was a metal door with a hidden touchpad, where Clint entered the password and they went on. The spider was already starting to vibrate nervously with excitement, he already liked it: in the spy's farmhouse there is a basement with such a protective door! What does this mean? That there is something interesting in the basement!  
The door closed behind him and Barton turned on the light. It turned out to be something like a shooting range: several targets, a bunch of weapons on the walls and boxes, apparently with cartridges. Spider-Man whistled as he looked around.  
“Of course, I prefer the bow, but I can also shoot with other types of weapons. Laura doesn't like all this, but I feel much calmer when I know that I have something in my house to protect my family. I'm telling you this because my spy instinct, call it what you will, tells me that you can be trusted. The way you said on the evening of our acquaintance about the version of the FBI that you can be watched and persecuted ... I then analyzed this situation, sorry, I have such professional habits. Now, it didn't look like you were in doubt. You looked like it might be possible. So, you had good reason for such thoughts. You're a smart and kind child, Peter. I want you to be able to protect yourself. " Hawkeye said seriously, and taking a pistol from a shelf, handed it to the teenager. He swallowed. From the very beginning of their acquaintance, Clint seemed to him such a ... home dad, and in the following days he proved it: with papal jokes, playing with the children whatever they wanted, and not only with Nate, but also with him and Cooper, some kind of concern, even sometimes some small advice, etc. And now he appeared before him as an insistent SHIELD agent, a former Avenger. Peter felt a thrill. He shouldn't have forgotten about it. “You didn't really like the bow, I saw it in your face when Leela and I were shooting. So I offer you another option. Self-defense is useful, of course, but your enemy may be too far away for that. And if he has a weapon, and you only have your hands, it is clear what the outcome of the fight will be. And I know that children are often sent to Willa, whose affairs have been marked with special importance. So it may be useful to you in the future. Considering the world in which we live, when they can get to you at any corner. Protecting yourself is never superfluous. "  
Pete thought for a moment that he had guessed who he was. But this fear immediately disappeared. But the moment was right! Suitable to tell him the truth, and it would radically change the situation, but something was stopping him from it. Stark Jr. looked down at the pistol held out to him. How much damage from weapons he saw on the streets! But at the same time, he understood that in the event that he ran out of web or he had to be Peter Parker, and not Spider-Man, there would be some kind of dangerous situation and the criminal would threaten someone's life too far to have time to help. using all means seemed to be the best option.  
The spider took the pistol from Clint and looked up at him seriously. He felt the invisible weight falling on his shoulders. He was fully and fully aware of all the responsibility that he had just entrusted to himself.  
"Good. You already know and know how to stand, as I taught you and Leela then. The first rule is the same: don't point your weapon at a person or anywhere else unless you intend to shoot. Second rule: always check the fuse. The rest is a little later, let's start with disassembling and assembling different types of weapons, reloading and cleaning them. "  
Later it turned out that Clint himself often went down to the basement in order not to start the skill, and his wife, as it turned out, was also a former agent, when she needed to let off steam, also shot at targets in the basement. It turns out there are no agents who have retired. They are only trying to pretend to be civilians, but in reality they will never get rid of everything that was hammered into them in training in their organization.  
After their first visit to the basement, Hawkeye with Spider went down there every day, as soon as Laura drove Leela and Cooper to school and Nathaniel to the garden. As soon as Spider-Man saw his first small progress in shooting, when Clint allowed him to see her at all, he immediately felt even more confident in himself. It was his this slightly excessive confidence that he cursed, believing that it was she who was to blame for what happened.  
She and Cooper agreed to go to McDonald's after his lessons, Leela got sick that day and didn't go to school, so Laura didn't go after the kids, Peter just decided to meet Cooper. As he approached his school, he heard some threatening conversation and the name "Barton". Based on his hearing, Pete quickly walked in the direction from which the quarrel came.  
"Look, Chad, I already told you that ..."  
Get away from him. Stark Jr. intervened, coming around the corner and seeing a picture of one teenager pressing Cooper against the wall, and the second just standing next to him.  
“Who else are you? Listen, walked by? Here you go. We have our own conversation about success at school. " chuckled this, apparently, Chad.  
“Cooper is a good student because he has brains and just needs to be nudged in the right direction. And you, apparently, have no brains. Because the first time you don't understand. I told you to get away from him. "  
The spider was angry. Whenever he witnessed intimidation, bullying or something like that in the streets - that's one thing, he always intervened. But here they catch the one he knows, his friend! This is different. The spider took Chad's hand away from Cooper's jacket and pushed him slightly to the side to take the vacant space between him and Coop, his back to the latter to protect him.  
“I don’t like bullies. I advise you to get your head out of your butt and behave accordingly, both with Cooper and with anyone else. Because for manifestations of such disrespect, let's say, there can be consequences. "  
"Who do you think you are?" the nameless boy snorted, trying to start a fight, but Spider-Man stopped his hand without even looking. He squeezed his wrist and let go.  
"AAA, bitch, you twisted my hand!" the teen screamed as Chad rushed to reach and hit Cooper.  
"Ugh, and with that filthy mouth you kiss your mom?" Will hurt a couple of days and it will pass. " Peter grinned, blocking Chad. He was distracted by this and did not see how that guy pulled out a knife. Spider-sense cried out for danger, and Pete turned his head and moved to the side to cover Coop on the other side. The knife slammed into his own side and this angered him even more. "Auch. But that was already unpleasant. " he noticed, squeezing the guy's other wrist again this time. He unclenched his fingers, which had been wrapped around the knife handle. Stark Jr. knew not to pull out the knife, as the bleeding would be even greater than it had already appeared. His opponent groaned, pressing his hand to his chest and rubbing it. "Say thanks for not breaking." he ducked from Chad's blow from the other side and winced at the tingling sensation in his side, hoping the knife hadn't hit any critical arteries or internal organs. Standing upright, Spider clenched his hand into a fist and punched Chad in the nose, which immediately poured blood. “Fuck you out of here. I will not warn you next time. "  
Perhaps such cruelty was not characteristic of him before, but he was not pierced with a knife before, only slightly scratched! Well, he chose the tactics of threat, since Clint could not leave the house to come to the school for the proceedings and put these two in their place. And Laura ... well, she wasn't that scary.  
“Lord God, Peter! I'm calling an ambulance! " exclaimed Cooper, holding his friend on the shoulder and watching Chad and his friend get out of here. As usual, the little fight took only a few minutes, and it seemed like it was going on for a very long time. The adrenaline gradually subsided and the hellish pain made itself felt. The spider gritted his teeth and slid his backpack off his shoulders.  
“No, Cooper. No hospitals. We will go to your home like this, I will climb up to the second floor and wait for you there, you will enter through the first one and sew my wound with medical threads. "  
“What are you talking about ?! You have a knife sticking out of your side! You need to go to the hospital! I'm calling my mom! " he began to take out his phone.  
"I said no!" Spider-Man raised his voice. “Help me put my backpack on ahead. It will be strange, but it will cover the bloody stain. What kind of idiots were they? "  
“But Peter… Think with your head. How long to go to our house, you will lose consciousness from blood loss! " tried to appeal to the voice of reason Cooper, along the way helping a friend to put on his backpack. “Yes, so ... Somehow they wanted to throw rotten tomatoes at the car of the history teacher, and scatter goat poop around the cabin. I heard how they agreed about it and told them not to do it, otherwise I will tell the teacher. They did not listen to me, so I warned him and he and the sheriff were caught red-handed. Since then, they have been clinging to me, now for their homework, so that I can do it for them ... ”he sighed.  
“I had to tell one of the adults. For teachers or parents, Cooper. Such people tend to increase their cruelty. I got under the knife, but what if it were you? I can stand it, but what are you? They would have left you or someone here and no one would help you or anyone else here. It began with words, continued with a knife, and what will happen next? We need to stop this. Are there cameras? " Peter looked around. “My best friend is very good at programming. After you sew me up, I will ask him to hack into your school video surveillance system and he will edit the video of this guy pulling out a knife and hitting someone with it. We'll send you to the police station. " he drew up a plan and looked down at his feet, since he was wearing his baggy clothes again, so that the wound was not visible, and the blood was absorbed into the clothes. "Let's go faster, before the puddles run down here." Pete hissed, taking a couple of steps forward and feeling the movement of a foreign body in his. He straightened his backpack and put his hand in his sweatshirt pocket - a normal-looking teenager (maybe a little pale and starting to sweat), but in fact he was just trying to keep the knife in one position. He obviously didn't want someone to come to the crime scene after receiving the videos and collect the dried blood, and then it would be analyzed in the police laboratory to identify the victim and ask her to file a complaint, but instead they would find his mutation. On the other hand, without blood and sacrifice, the case may not be opened, but at least something had to be done!  
“Peter, please think about the hospital again. We don't even have a medical thread at home! " Cooper was still trying to reason with him, holding his free hand.  
“Cooper, have you forgotten whose child you are? Do you have a medical thread at home! Now take me the way where there are fewer people. "  
The side ached terribly, my head began to spin, my mouth was dry, my eyes doubled - Stark Jr. did not know how else he could find the strength to draw up a plan and make Cooper follow it. In emergency situations, not such qualities of the human (or partially human) organism are revealed.  
The path was difficult, they stopped several times, and each time it seemed to him that at any moment he could lose consciousness.  
“Coop, I can… I can pass out…” the teenager mumbled weakly as they somehow got to the back of the house. “If this happens, then it's okay. The main thing for you is to act quickly. Pull out the knife, pour hydrogen peroxide on the wound, and sew it up. I don't care what the stitches are, don't try too hard. Then you will cover the wound with a bandage. Throw the knife under the bed. In the morning, when I come to my senses, we will figure out what to do with him, and get rid of the bloody clothes and sheets. Tell your parents that I went to bed because I didn't feel well, maybe I got infected from Leela. You say that I took my pills and rest. If they look into the room and ask what the smell is, you will say that a chemical experiment was carried out. Behave yourself, eat and play the console, for example. If I have a fever, I have a first-aid kit in my backpack, there are pills, you will find ... "  
"Pete, you're already on fire! Your forehead and hands are sweating! Let's tell Mom and Dad, the hospital is still the best option... "  
He shook his head in response, licking his lips, trying to somehow fight the dry mouth. His hand could no longer hold the knife in one position, but simply was on his handle.  
“If I’m conscious, then roll the towel into a roller and put it in my mouth so that I don’t scream. And it is advisable to keep the body in one position so that I do not twitch. It is unlikely that you alone can cope, maybe ask Leela to help if anything and if she feels okay for this, although, probably, it will be difficult for both of you... Sorry you have to do this. I thought that I would probably sew it myself, but I feel that now I will not have enough strength... "  
Cooper sighed and shook his head, removing his hand from his shoulder. The last meters of the way, he almost dragged him on himself and simply could not imagine how he would be able to climb to the second floor in such a state!  
“Come on, dude. Almost done. Just a little more and you'll be fine, I'll do my best. I went." said Coop and went around the house.  
Somehow wiping his hands on himself so that they would not slip, Spider tried to gather all his strength and crawled up the wall. His head was unbearably dizzy, he just wanted to close his eyes and pass out. He somehow opened the window to which he was crawling and immediately burst into the room, fortunately, he fell on his healthy side. Remind me when his wonderful plans came true? Never perfect. Apparently, he passed out for a couple of minutes, because the next moment that he remembers - it's some kind of shuffling, screeching and shouting: "Daaad, muuum, Peter is covered in blood here!" The spider immediately opened his eyes and tried to hiss a warning and put a finger to his mouth, but he was so exhausted that he could not even cope with this. He messed up the windows and climbed into Leela's room, not Cooper's, idiot.  
"Fuck!" Clint cursed as he ran into the room at his daughter's scream and saw a bloody teenager on the floor. He tried to remove his backpack, but he caught the knife hidden by the hoodie and Spider-Man screamed.  
Laura, following her husband, squatted down next to him and put her hand to the child's forehead.  
“He's on fire, Clint! We need to take him to the hospital, urgently! What happened? Cooper! They were supposed to be together! "  
"I don't know, I got out of the bathroom and here he is!" Leela screamed hysterically and drew attention to the bloody path from the window to the floor. "Apparently climbed in through the window"  
Coop burst into the room at the cry of his mother with peroxide, medical thread and bandage.  
"Fuck, dude ... I need to pull out the knife."  
"Knife? Is there still a knife in it ?! How much blood has he lost? "  
“I don’t know, Mom! A lot of. We walked here from school. He is totally against the hospital, what could I do? He wanted to hide it all from you ... "  
“Leela, scissors. Take Koopa and get out of here. Look after Nate. " ordered Clint, taking control of the situation and apparently realizing that they might not be able to get Peter to the hospital in time.  
Cooper left everything he took from the first aid kit on the floor and glanced over his shoulder at his friend, hurried out of the room. He knew that tone of his father, with which in such moments it is better not to argue.  
Leela brought in the scissors and quickly left too.  
Peter was aware of the situation, then not. He felt that Clint was cutting the straps of his backpack so as not to disturb the already injured body once again, and then he cuts through all the rest of his clothes and swears through his teeth.  
“Backpack… there is a first aid kit. There are medications that suit me… ”Pete whispered.  
Laura quickly opened her backpack, found a large first aid kit, and opened it for Clint. He began to rummage in it and froze.  
“What are you doing, Clint ?! Forgot how to inject painkillers? Let me!"  
"Laura, there are similar medications to the ones we always gave Cap in the field ..." the man looked up at his wife, and then turned it to a teenager who seemed to be dying of blood loss on the floor of his daughter's room.  
“Yes, that's what you need. Please, Mr. Barton! " because of all the forces remaining in him by some miracle, Stark Jr. squeezed out of himself. He did not know what they were thinking, maybe that he was a drug addict and deliberately put himself under the knife in order to legally receive a dose, but he didn't care now. He still received the painkillers, they pulled out the knife, cleaned the wound and sewed it up, and then forced him to swallow a couple of pills, apparently antipyretic and anti-inflammatory - according to the sensation Spider guessed about it all rather than really remembered that this was happening, like that that he seemed to be dragged somewhere and a couple of times changed the cold rag on his forehead.  
He regained consciousness after 12 hours, it was dark, but already early enough to call it morning rather than night. It turned out that Spider was lying on Leela's bed. He sat up, wincing at an unpleasant tingling sensation in his side, but at least that was tolerable. On the bedside table was a glass of water and some pills. There was a note nearby, but there was not enough moonlight to read the contents, and Spider-Man did not want to turn on the light. Although he felt more or less, just in case he drank these pills and somehow pulled on one of his thin long-sleeved sweater that someone had left on the chair. The room smelled like cleaning products, probably wiping blood from surfaces while he was passed out.  
Peter groped his shoes and walked cautiously out of the room. Holding onto the walls to orient himself, he went downstairs and left the house through the back door. The teenager sank down on the porch and straightened his legs, lifted his head up and began to mindlessly gaze at the stars. It helped Lexi to stop being afraid, but will it help him to let go of all his worries?  
He heard careful quiet steps in the house, but did not attach any importance to it. After a couple of minutes, Clint came out to him and handed him a cup of cocoa. Apparently, the spy's sensitive sleep was making itself felt.  
"You must stay in bed for at least a week."  
Pete waved his hand, they say it doesn't matter, anyway he knew that soon there would be a few weeks' scar at the site of the wound. Stark Jr. gratefully took the cup and took a sip.  
“Sorry for the inconvenience. I didn't mean to disturb you. "  
“Cooper told us what happened. It's okay, Peter. I kind of understand why you didn't want to go to the hospital. You hide some changes in your body, right? " asked the man, sitting down beside him and taking a sip from his own cup.  
"Uh-huh." he drank some more hot drink from the mug.  
"I understand. We understand, I talked to the children, no one will tell anyone anything. With what is happening in the world, it is much safer to really hide that there is something in you, than to demonstrate it somewhere in this area, you will immediately turn to someone. To Laura and me, for example. Okay?"  
“Okay, thanks a lot, Mr. Barton. It means a lot to me. " Spider buried himself in his cup to drink the sudden lump in his throat.  
“So that's why you’re at Willa’s, huh? Because you have some kind of superpowers? "  
"Not. Neither the FBI nor the Vance know anything. "  
“Does anyone have your back at home just in case? Where did you get the right medicines for you? Don't tell me what you stole from the SHIELD. "  
The spider wanted to chuckle, but for some reason it came out with a sob. He didn't know what it was. The events of today that have exhausted his body and the last weeks, to put it mildly, of a nervous general condition. He left a nearly empty cup and covered his face with his hands.  
"I just want to go home ..." Spider-Man whispered softly.  
"Oh boy ..." Clint sighed and putting his cup down, hugged the boy. “The FBI will figure this out and you will be returned home. I am sure that your real parents will be glad to see you back, even with supernormal abilities. "  
Peter needed this — crying out on someone’s shoulder he trusted. And he really felt a little better.  
"Do you want to call someone and tell them what happened?" Hawkeye asked, reaching for his phone as they disconnected and the teen wiped his face with the sleeve of his sweater.  
He shook his head. Tony was the only one in his head, but he would clearly not be delighted when he found out about the current situation. He would definitely rush to pick him up, but he seemed to be not bad with the Bartons. Here, among all these farmlands, he could at least move freely, otherwise he would be locked up in the Complex.  
“Okay, I realized that it’s better not to raise that topic. If you don't want to sleep, then can you tell me what you can? And finish your cocoa, it must be cold already. "  
Pete forced a smile and finished his drink, reaching for Mr. Barton's phone, which was now between them.  
"Can I take your phone?"  
"Sure." he unlocked it and handed it to the teenager.  
Stark Jr. logged into his Google account and found the very videos he filmed when he was in Germany in the data warehouse. This will tell Clint more than any words. Turning on the video, he handed the phone to the man.  
“Spider-Man, then. How old are you, remind me? " inquired Clint when the video ended and Spider was logged out of his account.  
"15." he rolled his eyes. “I was until the moment I found Tony Stark in my living room with a fake internship offer. He thought I was at least in college, not a student. He gave me a superb suit with built-in AI and a bunch of different gadgets to keep me safer than the suit I made myself. He told me that he regrets that he took me to Germany, he thought that it would not come to a fight, since you were all friends ... A lot of things happened after Germany, my au... guardian found out about Spider-Man, there was a big scandal , as a result, I began to visit the Complex often and train. "  
"Look, both sides made mistakes then, but letting the child be part of this on Tony's part ... I wouldn't call it the right thing to do."  
“Yes, I agree that the Agreement is a very controversial topic. But at least he makes concessions, tries to somehow smooth things over and come to a conclusion that would suit everyone. He took my costume away from me, tried to restrict me in my heroic activity. It didn't lead to anything good. Spider-Man, with or without a suit, is still Spider-Man. It's me."  
“Okay, Spidey, what’s Tony doing now? I do not want to turn you against him, but I know that he is a very difficult and contradictory person. How do you like him as a mentor? At least interested in how are you doing, besides those that you do in a suit? Does he even know you left New York? If I were in his place, I would have hung everyone who knows about your identity with an NDA. How confident are you in him?"  
"I'm as confident in him as Leela, Cooper and Nate are confident in you." throwing up his head as a challenge, the teenager answered seriously, meeting the uncomprehending gaze of the man. “He is my father. That's why they took me away. Because it turned out that I am Christian Stark with a big goal above my head. "  
Hawkeye was silent for a moment, pondering the information, then took their cups and rose abruptly to his feet.  
"Then it's good that you're Spider-Man."  
For the first time, the spider voiced the truth out loud and suddenly realized what danger it exposes to everyone with whom to be near. If someone still comes for him, then everyone who will be around may suffer!  
"I understand if you want me to leave." he muttered, bowing his head and looking down at his feet.  
“Don't talk nonsense. Whatever relationship we have with each other, I know that Tony would protect my children as well as I will protect you if necessary. Moreover, as I understand it, the public is not aware that you were found, your face does not flicker anywhere, so while you are relatively safe. You know, we among the Avengers never talked about it, but I saw how hard it was for Pepper and Tony, I saw such longing in his eyes when he was here and looked at my children. So I understand that you are everything to him, just like my children are to me. Sorry for my doubts about him about you. Come on, I have a bunch of photos that I think you will be interested to see. " Clint smiled encouragingly and went into the house.  
The spider got to his feet and followed him. So they ended up in the living room in front of the TV, in which Barton set up the display of all the photos of the Avengers and in particular Tony Stark, which he had both during the time spent together and when they were hiding on the farm. It was really interesting and fun for Spider-Man to look at all these photos and hear a bunch of related stories. His father never told him much about the times of the Avengers, he probably hurt a lot.  
In another photo, Spider-Man bowed his head to Clint's shoulder and fell asleep. A few hours later he woke up again, but it turned out that he was lying on the sofa alone. Peter yawned and looked around. Nathaniel sat in a chair and played with toy soldiers. He smiled at him.  
"Mommy!" the boy called Laura and the teenager wondered if they had put him here to watch him and tell him when he woke up?  
"Oh Peter, you're awake." Laura, who had come to the call, smiled at him. She brushed back his bangs and pressed her lips to his forehead. “It seems that there is no heat. It's good. Well, you scared us yesterday! And why did you even get out of bed ?! Clint told me about your late night get-togethers. You could have contracted an infection or simply caught a cold! "  
"Excuse me." Pete muttered embarrassedly. "It's okay, since I was bitten by a radioactive spider, I don't get sick and fly quickly."  
"What bit you, dude?" Cooper asked in surprise as he walked into the living room with his sister.  
"Spider. That's why I called myself Spider-Man. " he smiled awkwardly, making a motion with his hand as if shooting a spider web from his wrist. "Well, actually, only New York knows about me, so it's okay that you don't know." Stark Jr. sighed. "Sorry for yelling at you then, Coop. And you, Leela, I'm sorry to have covered your window and floor with blood, I was a little out of my mind. "  
"It's okay, Peter, the main thing is that you're fine!" Cooper smiled at him as he sat down on the arm of the couch.  
"Let's see how the wound heals and if anything, change the plaster." said Mrs Barton, squatting down.  
"Not worth it, I'm sure everything is more than okay."  
"Don't be silly, Peter." the woman snorted, so he allowed her to pull up his sweater and peel off the bandage a little. At the site of the freshly sutured wound, there were several weeks of scars with a protruding medical thread.  
"Fuck, dude!" exclaimed Coop.  
The spider laughed nervously, scratching the back of his head.  
"I told you it was okay."  
"Okay, then a hearty breakfast and no physical exertion, the body needs to restore blood loss." said Laura, getting to her feet. "I'm going to get the tweezers, the thread needs to be pulled out."  
When the woman left, Leela tilted her head philosophically.  
"So you have abs."  
"What, now you will treat me better?" he grinned, raising eyebrows.  
"So, take away the Stark charm." Clint, who entered the room, said cheerfully, but at the same time half-menacingly.  
The spider was embarrassed, blushing. He noticed that Leela's cheeks also turned pink.  
"What else can you do, Peter?" Cooper asked curiously, defusing the situation.  
“I have improved hearing, strength, agility. I can crawl on walls, there is a so-called spider-sense that warns me of danger. But I haven't studied it thoroughly yet. "  
"Wow, how strong are you?"  
"As I saw from the YouTube video, it can catch a bus and hold two parts of the ferry." answered the elder Barton, apparently already during all this time surfing the Internet and reading about Spider-Man.  
"Wow, and how many tons are that?"  
"I think about 13,000 tons."  
“Actually, probably a little more. A concrete warehouse once fell on me and I lifted it. " as if Spider-Man said nothing special.  
"Lord, after that, if I were Tony, I would lock you in the medical wing and not let you out of there!"  
"He does not know." Peter answered quietly.  
"Shouldn't your suit be reporting your damage to him?"  
"This was exactly the period when I was with my old suit."  
“Peter, I think you should tell him. I would be very worried if something like this happened to one of my children and they hid it from me. "  
“So that he was tormented by a sense of guilt because then he took a fancy suit and I was, as he says, in pajamas? No thanks. He already has a lot on his plate. "  
"Peter, you ... you ..." Clint trailed off, shaking his head. He had already realized that the moral complex of this child rivaled that of Cap. It deserved respect. “This is your business, see for yourself. But, you "the man carefully looked at each of his children who were present in the room," you do not do this. Clear?"  
They nodded and just at last Laura came back and sat down on the sofa beside Peter.  
“The skin is healed and overgrown around the thread, so it will hurt. You need to clamp something. "  
"Why don't you feel sorry if I break?" the teenager chuckled.  
“Firewood, Cooper, go get them to the barn. I'll come right now. " Hawkeye reported and headed upstairs.  
"Clint! Even a child with superpowers cannot be exploited! " chided his wife.  
"Come on, Laura, let's kill two birds with one stone." shouted her husband.  
"Yeah, and just you will avoid your most "favorite" occupation - chopping wood, huh?"  
"Yeah." the man smiled when he returned with his old belt. “Grip your teeth,” he said to Peter and handed him the belt. He did as he told him and in one hand took the log that Cooper brought him. He put his other hand on the soft seat of the sofa with the intention of squeezing.  
"Children, leave the room, just in case." Laura asked them and looked at Peter. "Ready?" she asked, grabbing one of the threads with tweezers. Pete nodded.  
"On three. One two Three!" she jerked one of the strings and Pete gritted his teeth around the belt, drowning out a scream. At the same time, he clenched his hands into fists and, of course, the piece of wood that he was holding fell apart.  
Cooper whistled as he watched from the doorway.  
“Dude, you're cooler than Thor! He never showed us how far he can throw his hammer. " smiled Coop and handed another log to his friend, again ears to safety.  
"A couple more threads." assured Mrs Barton, grabbing the next one with her tweezers.  
The teenager sighed and braced himself.  
When everything was done, they went to the kitchen for breakfast, and Clint took the chips to the right place in the barn and tidied up the living room.

Since then, Mr. and Mrs. Barton, in some way unknown to the Spider himself, have become for him uncle Clint and aunt Laura. Clint gave him a chin-up bar and every morning gave him long runs, hand-to-hand training, and then they returned to the basement. Stark Jr. felt like he was on vacation at some kind of training camp. It was great that you could no longer hide and use your abilities in different places. Right now, for example, Stark Jr. walked on the highest point of the roof of the Barton house with his hands in his pockets. Laura asked them to renovate the roof. And while Clint was attaching the new shingles, the Spider was a little bored, since his part of the work of tearing off the old one had already been done.  
"Just don't do it at night." Hawkeye chuckled, looking up at the child. Of course he was a little scared by such a walk on the roof, but he calmed himself with his superpowers.  
“Maybe for Halloween. Invite Chad and his friend over for "treat or die," and here I am on the roof. I will come to scare them on purpose. ” Spider-Man chuckled in response, walking down the sloping roof closer to Clint.  
He put the hammer next to him and wiped the sweat from his forehead. When he wanted to take the hammer again, he rolled to the edge and reaching out to him, the man slid down. Peter activated his shooter and grabbed his wrist with a web, shouting in panic "uncle Clint!" He hung down from the roof with his chest, carefully pulling the web and gradually lowering the man lower and lower.  
Laura ran out to scream and found the moment when her husband's feet touched the ground. Pete took the webs back and jumped off the roof and landed beside them.  
"Everything is fine? Did I sprain your wrist? "  
"It's okay thanks to you, Spidey." the man smiled a little shocked and hugged his wife with one hand, opened the other for other embraces. The teenager did not fail to take advantage of this and felt how Laura hugged him from the other side, hugged both of them. And he doesn't need any Ben and May, because Clint and Laura love him just like that for all his quirks of character, for his superpowers, for being the son of Tony Stark and just for being who he is. He was a great replacement for the Parkers.

The next morning, Stark Jr.'s instinct was annoyed and he could not figure out what was going on, went on nerves all morning until government agents came to the Bartons in order to check the location of Hawkeye.  
A spider loomed behind his uncle when he opened the door.  
"Shouldn't your kids be at school, Barton?"  
“And I'm illegitimate. He graduated from school as an external student and came to meet his parent. And you spoil the whole family dynamics for us. " Spider declared insolently, crossing his arms over his chest.  
Clint suppressed a grin and rolled his eyes - it's clear who Leela had it from.  
"My children's distance learning friend loves to joke." he put his hand on the teenager's face and pushed him into the corner.  
"Have you checked Hawkeye's location yet?" he immediately leaned around the corner as soon as Clint removed his hand. “He's in place, as you can see. Everything is fine. Goodbye." since the man did not let the agents into the house, they were still standing on the porch, so Spider-Man closed the door in front of them without any problems and caught the expression on Clint's face and snorted. "What? I didn’t like them, probably because of them I was on pins and needles all morning, my instinct haunted me and now seemed to have calmed down a little. "  
“Tony's traits show up out of the blue. He also loves to jam with the government and the bad guys. But please, Peter, don't take that example. It will be easier for you in the future. " Barton sighed with a slight smile.  
“Okay, since they have already visited, there is still a lot of time until the next visit. Did I tell you I know a little about engineering? Dad and I often delve into his suits, mine, Avengers weapons, and even cars. So to loop your bracelet on your leg and take it off, I think I won't have a problem. We can go to Lake Herman where Nate wanted. Aren't you tired of sitting within four walls? Let's have fun. I think camping is joyfully! " smiled Peter.  
“I'll talk to Laura. I don't want to risk going to jail again. " Clint smiled at him, getting a little fired up at the idea. It was so easy to pick up enthusiasm from this child and be charged with his cheerfulness!


End file.
